Warpaint
by Boofeh
Summary: Kairi lived a normal life, until a certain blonde girl with nails that were all the colours of the rainbow appeared out of the blue and shook Kairi's world upside down. Kairi/Namine, Sora/Riku. Minor swearing in later chapters. -DISCONTINUED-
1. One

The day started out like any other. Wake up, have a shower, watch a little TV while eating breakfast, then maybe a little Myspace or a walk with the dog. Then get dressed, straighten her hair, put on her makeup and catch the bus into town. If she arrived early, she might do a little window shopping or head to work and take a seat in the café she worked at and wait for her shift to begin.

Destiny Café was one of the only café's on this side of Destiny Island. It was quite large, with several private booths and even a small function room for birthdays and weddings and such. It was also the best place for any teenager to work, because the hours were good, the pay was better and the boss was super nice. Quite frankly, Kairi considered herself lucky to work there and she always made sure she was on time and presentable. The waiting list for employment was three whole pages long, and she did not want to screw with that.

Today, however, the bus was late because it missed a stop and had to double back to pick up the passengers and one of them had yelled at him for five minutes. Kairi rushed in through the doors at 12:05, frantically made her excuses to her coworkers, went into the back, tied her hair into a loose ponytail and pulled an apron over her head and proceeded to look about for an odd job to keep busy with.

Destiny was busy today. All of the booths were occupied and many of the tables were taken. The roar of the coffee machine could just be heard over the din of the customers and the scraping of chairs and plates.

One of the free front tables was covered in salt, sugar crystals and a puddle of coffee, so she began to rapidly wipe down the table, cursing at the messy occupant in her head. Really, did they have to practically empty the salt shaker onto the table? And was it possible to put the coffee into their mouth instead of everywhere else? Some people really need to go back to kindergarten etiquette classes.

"Can I sit there?" A voice interrupted her thoughts. Kairi looked up to spot a thin girl of about her age, standing on the other side of the table. Icy blue eyes glinted beneath golden blonde hair that fell past her collar. She was wearing a white sun dress with a bunch of colourful butterflies stitched to the bottom half, and a silver butterfly charm hung around her throat. Her skin was very pale for someone on an island. However, deep shadows hung under her eyes and her posture seemed to sag a little bit.

Kairi paused as she looked the other girl up and down.

"Uh, sure." With one last irritable flick at the salt on the table, Kairi grabbed a menu out of her apron and handed it to the girl, who was taking the seat opposite.

As she handed her the menu, she noticed the other girl's fingernails for the first time. They were very long and rounded off, almost making her feel a little inferior with her broken, bitten-down fingernails. Also, they were painted a bright green.

_Green fingernails? That's a new one. _Kairi mused to herself as she made her way back to the kitchen.

When she got behind the counter, a tired-looking coworker pushed her in the direction of the cash register. Kairi began to ask people for their orders, write them down and hand them to the girl behind her who was feverishly churning out cups of coffee by the coffee machine. She took money, counted it quickly, shoved it in the cash register and dispensed change where necessary.

The job was really easy. She didn't have to do much thinking to do a good job, unlike the poor girl strapped to the coffee machine. How terrible that job was – shake of sugar, give it a stir, froth the milk, dump that in, put in the hot water and try not to burn yourself on the steam, watch the level now, oh no, too much froth, scrape a bit off, crap, now there's not enough, oh well, next cup. Shake of sugar –

"Huh?" Kairi said, realizing that she had zoned out.

"I said I would like a donut with that, please." The blonde girl from before glared across the counter at her.

"Yes! A donut, of course. Anything, um, else?" She scribbled it down, hoping that was it and that this angry girl would leave her alone.

"No, I would also like a cashier that's paying me a little attention, but we can't have everything we want." She snapped, icy eyes narrowed into a seriously scary death glare.

Kairi felt dumbfounded. How rude could a person get? She inwardly sighed and mentally smacked herself over the head. Bad Kairi! The customer is always right!

"I'm sorry about that, err, how about extra donuts to make up for my blunder?" She asked hopefully, pen in hand. As a rule, she wasn't supposed to hand out extras, but she was scared that the girl might learn over the counter and strangle her if she didn't.

The blonde girl waved her hand absently, glancing in the other direction. "Sure, whatever makes you feel better."

"Uh huh." Kairi muttered, scrawling on her notepad, before tearing the page off and handing it to the girl behind her. _Extra froth, okay?_

"That comes to six dollars." Kairi smiled at the other girl, who pushed a crumpled tenner at her. Not wanting to waste any more time, she rapidly straightened it out and shoved it in the register. Looking up, she expected to see the next customer, but instead the blonde girl glared at her again.

"Yes?" Kairi asked, hesitantly. _Oh god, what do you want now?_

"My change. You forgot my change."

_Oh, hell!_

Apologizing profusely, Kairi ripped the change out of the register and practically threw it at the other girl. The girl, not expecting an aerial coinage attack, put her hand up in front of her face, sending the coins bounding off her and flying all over the floor.

When the blonde girl lowered her hand, her face was a mixture of fury and disgust, making Kairi cringe. She turned away and spat a small coin onto the floor.

A moment's silence swept the shop, and Kairi felt that everyone within a one-mile radius had stopped, turned and stared at her. It felt like the earth had stopped turning. She could feel the stunned glances of her coworkers burning into the back of her skull, and she could see the furious glare of the blonde girl in front of her.

"Oops?" Kairi muttered.

---

A roar of laugher was her response.

"You're such an idiot! Did you get fired?" Her brunette friend asked, wiping tears of laughter out of his eyes as he clung onto the tree for dear life.

Kairi's arms folded and she glared at him. "Could you please be a little considerate? You asked me what was bothering me and I told you and – stop laughing!"

Sora, the brunette boy with blue eyes sitting on the tree that bent sideways, coughed a few times and straightened up a little. "Okay, I stopped, but lighten up, Kairi! Nothing bad came of it, right?" He stood up and began to pace the length of the tree "So, you pissed off a customer and embarrassed yourself in front of a shop full of people and you probably got a cut in your pay check, but oh well, life does go on."

"Kairi's right, you know." Said a silver haired boy learning against a nearby palm tree. "Don't be inconsiderate."

Sora stopped and sent a glare in the direction of the slightly older boy lounging against the tree "What's up your arse today, anyway?"

The boy, Riku, ignored Sora and turned to Kairi. "So she was blonde and wearing a white dress with butterflies on it?"

Kairi nodded. "Did you run into her?"

Riku shrugged "_I_ didn't run into her, but the door I was holding did."

"You slammed a door in her face? Way to go, chauvinist."

Riku shoved Sora roughly, sending him sprawling off the tree and into the sand. "Well, I was walking into the library today, and I noticed that there was someone behind me. I didn't want to let the door slam in their face, so I gave the door and extra push to give them time to get inside before it closed, but it swung around and smacked them in the face. I turned to say sorry to this really angry-looking blonde girl in a white dress, but she slapped me and pushed past."

Kairi's hand went over her mouth as she listened. Damn, that poor girl really was having a rough day.

"So Kairi, you didn't get fired?" Sora asked as he clambered back onto the tree.

"No, I just got 'theraputical leave', meaning half of my shifts got cut." Kairi said, gesturing the quotation marks "The boss said I was stressed from working so much."

"Well that sucks, but at least you have more time to spend with us, right?" Sora reasoned, trying to catch his balance on the tree again. Kairi had to nod in agreement.

The rest of the afternoon was spent lazing about in the shade, talking and laughing, and finally a sparring match between Riku and Sora, the loser having to climb up a tree, fetch a coconut and crack it open for them to eat. In a stunning turn of events, Riku tripped over a rock, lost his balance and fell from the island into the water. Kairi, acting as the judge, disqualified Riku and announced Sora as the winner. Riku, cursing colourfully, found a good coconut and had it cracked in a matter of minutes, and the tree of them shared the milk and ate the meat together while watching the sunset.

It was later revealed that Kairi had disqualified Riku because it usually took Sora half an hour to crack a coconut, and he usually spilled all of the milk and got sand all through the meat in the process.

As good as the afternoon was, Kairi couldn't help but shake the blonde girl's angry glare from her mind. Somehow she knew that she would be seeing the girl again. She did, and sooner than she thought, but under circumstances she would never expect.

---

**Author's Notes:**** I used to hate Kairi with a fiery passion, but as I've matured I've come to see the ignorant bundle of skanky goodness that is Kairi with some amount of affection.**

**But only if she isn't paired with Sora.**

**I dunno how, but I somehow figured that Kairi/Naminé was a good pairing. It may have a little to do with some real life events, but whatever. I'm already four chapters into this fic and not showing and signs of slowing down, so sit back and enjoy the Yuri goodness.**

**This is based (however faintly) on a true story, like a lot of my fics. As a result, I tend to get the real people mixed up with the pretend people, and some characters may appear slightly OOC, so forgive me for that. (I might tell the original story at the end, if you're good. It's actually quite a doozy.)**

**Please enjoy and review – any and all feedback is muchly loved.**


	2. Two

The summer sun beat down heavily upon the Islands, sending the thermometer soaring to a record fifty degrees Celsius (Which is roughly 90 degrees Fahrenheit, for you Americans) Everyone was holed up inside, out of the heat with their air conditioners on as high as they'd go. A few daring souls were hiding in the shadier bits of the beach, swimming about in the cool water with globs of sunscreen smeared on their bodies.

Three of these people were on a small island, not far off the coast of the mainland. They had built several shacks when they were young, and were now hiding in one to escape the heat. All three of the trio was sprawled on the floor, no closer than a foot away to each other, because it was just too hot for any sort of contact. There was almost no breeze, and Riku and Sora had stripped their sweat-soaked shirts off to try and stay cool.

Kairi, however, refused to remove any of her clothing, and had made a small fan out of a very large leaf, and was using it vainly to remove the sweat from her brow. However, the small fan's faint movements were the only thing stirring up the sweltering air, and finally Sora had had enough.

"Right, that's it; I'm going for a swim." He said, climbing to his feet and picking up his shirt.

Riku and Kairi looked at him from the floor.

"Right. Off you go, then." Riku nodded absently, after a few moments' silence.

Sora grabbed him by the wrist and tried, unsuccessfully, to pull him up "You're coming with me."

Kairi laughed "Do you need someone to hold your hand, Sora?"

Sora aimed a light kick at Riku's ribs, winding the other male slightly. "Come on, dead weight. I'll race you."

Before he could move, a hand shot out and grabbed his ankle, yanking it out from underneath him, sending the boy tumbling to the floor with a heavy crash and a yell. When he came back to his senses, Riku was on his feet and out the door.

Sora howled something unintelligible after him. Kairi laughed and jumped up, following Riku out the door.

Kairi still had her shoes on, so she managed to catch up to barefooted Riku very quickly, who was standing in the shallows with a sigh of relief. She took her shoes off and waded in up to her ankles. Sora was right, this was much nicer than sitting in the shade.

A smirking Riku aimed a splash at her, and she shrieked and splashed him right back. When they were both good and wet, she stopped, wiped the water out of her eyes and looked back at the shack.

"Sora's certainly taking his time." She muttered, brow furrowing.

"Maybe he's scared of monsters." Riku laughed, bending over to roll his jeans up to his knees to stop them from getting any wetter.

"Wasn't this his idea?" Kairi turned to Riku, worry evident on her face.

"Did he get up after I ran out?" Riku asked, still bent over. Kairi shook her head dumbly.

"I don't think so."

"Crap!"

They both ran for the shack, ignoring the burn of the sand under their feet. Riku got there first and wrenched the door open to reveal a very pale Sora, curled up into a ball on the floor, clutching his leg.

He looked up at them "Oh, so you finally decided to come back now?" he grimaced angrily.

Riku squatted down next to Sora "Where does it hurt?" He asked, as Kairi grabbed his shirt and shoes.

Sora clutched his ankle, glaring at Riku "My ankle. You broke it, you son of a --"

"Shut your mouth before I break it, too." Riku snapped, trying to hook his arm under Sora's. Kairi dropped the clothes to help Sora to his good foot, but Riku pushed her away.

"He can't walk." He snapped at her as his other arm hooked under Sora's leg. Sora caught the drift, wrapping his arms around Riku's neck and hanging on for all he was worth. With a heave, Riku straightened up and carrying Sora almost bridal-style, proceeded to sprint out of the shack and across the sand, Kairi hot on his heels.

When he reached the jetty he practically threw Sora into his row boat and lowered himself in afterwards. Kairi began to climb into her boat, but Riku stopped her.

"Do me a favor and get our clothes? We'll meet you at the hospital if you don't catch us." He called quickly, before seizing his oars. His powerful arms stretched to the limit as the small boat rocketed across the sea like a speedboat. Before long, they were nothing more than a speck on the distant shore.

Kairi took her time to retrieve the clothes. Sure, she was worried about Sora, but he'd be fine. He'd suffered worse injuries in the past and bounced right back, and Kairi did not doubt for a second that he'd be running around again soon.

She was a little more worried about Riku. As much as he loved beating the crap out of the younger with his silly wooden sword, he actually hated the thought of his best friend in serious pain. Especially if he'd inflicted it.

Kairi knew that Riku would take this pretty heavily, like the time he pushed Sora into a bookcase in the third grade, deeply gashing the boy just above the hairline. He'd bled like his head had fallen off, and, she recalled, none of the teachers had been able to tear Riku away from his side, even at the hospital when Sora was getting his head stitched up. She'd run from the room screaming that Sora had died. As bad as she felt about it, Kairi really didn't like blood.

As she pottered about in the shack, looking for Riku's left shoe, she recalled the time she'd broken her arm when she fell off the flying fox. It was a high fall, too, and her arm had been broken in three separate places. Nobody had to carry her to the jetty, but she did remember a pale Riku working the too-big oars of his boat as fast as he could, while she sat in the back seat and bawled her head off.

She'd never really stopped to think about it, but Riku really was the 'big brother' of the group, and she was lucky to have him as a friend.

Finally, she spotted Riku's shoe in a corner, and as she moved to get it, something red flashed in the corner of her eye. Stunned, she turned to take a closer look.

It was a small pool of blood, right where Sora had been laying before.

_Oh, hell._

---

"Riku!"

The shirtless, shoeless, silver-haired boy that was slumped forward on the seat in the long, cold doorway looked up, took one glance at Kairi, who was practically running to him, and his head sunk back down.

"Hey."

Kairi tossed his shirt and shoes at him. Riku didn't even bother catch them and they fell harmlessly to the ground. _He really is taking this hard, isn't he?_

"So, I, uh, I saw the blood." Kairi said stiffly, unsure if she should comfort Riku or confront him.

"The last thing I needed was for you to freak out." He looked up at her, green eyes dull beneath a layer of silver hair "I know you hate blood."

She sat down next to Riku, learning against him a little comfortingly. "Yes, I figured. Thanks for that, you smart cookie you." She smiled.

Riku's face was trained on his bare feet again. He didn't make a sound.

"So, how is he?" Kairi asked slowly.

"His bone snapped clean in half when I grabbed him, and when he fell down a sharp bit penetrated his skin." Riku muttered "He's in theatre."

Kairi was shocked. This was way more serious than she thought.

"Have you called his parents?" She asked. Riku shook his head. "Right, well I'll go do that. You stay put and guard this seat, okay? I'll want a full status report when I get back." She said, mocking a general of war, hoping to cheer him up.

Riku, head still down, gestured a small salute. Through the gaps in his hair, Kairi could see a rueful smile on his lips.

_Mission accomplished_. She turned away and began her search for a telephone.

After getting good and lost, a passing nurse told her that there was one on the floor below, and she gave her directions to the lift. Kairi thanked her and was on her way.

The lift was easy enough to find, but there was quite a wait for the thing to actually come to her. There were many islands in the surrounding waters, and Destiny had the only proper hospital for a thousand miles. Even though the surrounding buildings were quite small, the hospital stood at eight floors. The fire department was forced to ship in a bigger fire truck with a very powerful hose to reach the top floor, in case it caught fire or something and the less powerful hoses couldn't reach it.

Kairi's mind came back from a world of fire and fire trucks when the elevator let out a pleasant ding and opened. This was also the only elevator Kairi had ever ridden, and though she was fortunate enough to only do it rarely, it was always a treat to ride in it.

"So you're going to ignore me again?" A voice said, sounding a little unamused.

"Huh?" Kairi said, realizing that she'd spaced out again.

"You're really spacey, you know." The blonde girl said, standing next to Kairi. Today the white sun dress was gone; she was wearing instead thin faded jeans and a bright yellow shirt with some pink design on it. A second glance revealed butterflies. The silver butterfly charm was again seen at her throat.

_Girl likes butterflies. I'm more of a dragonfly girl myself. _Kairi mused as she mentally smacked herself over the head.

"Oh! You again! Heh, I know, I don't mean to, but it happens." Kairi scratched the back of her neck in an embarrassed way. She stopped when she realized it was something Sora would do in a similar situation. The door closed with another gentle ding, and Kairi felt the funny dropping sensation as the lift moved downwards.

"'You again'?" The girl sighed. "And I was having a good day today." She frowned into the distance, almost sadly.

Again, Kairi mentally smacked herself. Was it so hard to treat this girl like a normal human being?

"I'm so rude, I'm sorry." She held out her hand for the other girl to shake "I'm Kairi."

The girl just looked at her.

"I know."

Kairi gaped at her. Did she know her from somewhere before? No, Kairi was sure she'd recall someone like this girl.

"It was on your name tag at Destiny Café." She explained, clearly wondering why Kairi didn't know this.

Again, Kairi mentally smacked herself on the head. She did that a lot around this girl, but she couldn't think why.

"Anyway, I'm –" The girl was cut off when the lift shook violently and suddenly stopped. The lights flickered dangerously, but stayed on.

"Oh my god! No! We have to get out of here right now!" Kairi panicked, beating her fists against the door. She looked about for an emergency phone or something of the sort, but found that there was nothing to indicate what she should do in an emergency. _Who the hell designed this thing!?_

"Sora! Riku! Hold on! I'm coming!" She tried to wrench the door open, but her strength failed and she slid to the floor in a miserable heap.

The blonde girl watched her calmly, standing in exactly the same spot she had before.

"… Are you done?"

Kairi sighed and nodded. The girl muttered something and slid down the wall opposite Kairi. The lift was just large enough to give them some room, but small enough for their legs to be almost touching.

"Well, I'm Naminé." She finally said after a short silence. Kairi nodded.

"That's a nice name. Is it French?" She asked.

Naminé nodded, looking a great deal happier than she had the other day. She reached forward and clasped Kairi's hand in hers in a warm handshake.

Kairi looked down at her hands and was struck by something odd.

"Your nails.. They're blue today." She said simply.

Naminé paused. Usually people just observed that they were a certain colour, but never that they had been different before. Even though this Kairi girl was spacey, she sure was observant.

"I paint them according to my mood." She smiled across at her.

Kairi nodded. "So, green is… bad mood?" She said slowly, trying to piece together the facts. Naminé smiled and nodded.

"That particular shade of green is saved for my really bad days. And when my nails are dark green, watch out, because misfortune and disaster will follow." She smiled mischievously.

"But if the green paint brings bad luck... could you just… not paint your nails?" Kairi asked, a little bewildered. This Naminé sure was strange, but it was a good kind of strange.

Naminé shook her head "It doesn't work like that. I have to paint my nails according to my mood, and I can't paint them a different colour, because if I do…" She trailed off, eyes glinting with excitement "… really bad things happen."

Kairi nodded again, beginning to catch on. Naminé was probably crazy or on drugs, but Kairi couldn't help but like her style. "So, what's blue?"

"Blue's my favorite colour, and it means I'm in a good mood. The lighter, the happier I am, and the darker the paint, the worse I feel. It goes for all colours, not just blue." Naminé smiled, revealing pearly white teeth.

Kairi laughed "Just how many colours do you have?"

"Well, I have several shades of each colour. I have blue and green, purple, red, brown, pink, orange, black and white." Naminé paused, as if trying to think of any more.

"Holy crap, you must have a hundred bottles of the stuff!" Kairi smiled.

Naminé smiled back "Yeah, I have about that. I'm only as strong as my nail varnish, after all." She pulled a small mobile phone out of her pocket and used it to check the time. "We've been in here for ten minutes."

Kairi blinked. Time sure was flying. Poor Riku must be wondering where she got to. Quickly, she stood up.

"We've gotta get out of here, Naminé. A friend of mine is in surgery and my other friend is waiting for me to get back from calling his parents, and I have to get back to them." Kairi frowned sadly at Naminé as she offered a hand to help her up.

"Sora and Riku, right?" She laughed at Kairi's shocked face "You called their names when the lift broke down. You should probably sit down; we're not going _anywhere._"

Kairi thought about mentally smacking herself, but she decided against it. This girl was just sharp, not Kairi's fault.

"So, what happened to your friend?" Naminé asked kindly.

Kairi slumped over in defeat, next to Naminé, as she told her of the afternoon's events. Naminé was a wonderful listener, nodding and gasping in all of the right places, staring at Kairi intently as she told the story.

Once it was finished, Naminé learned back and blew a gust of air from her cheeks. "Oh, wow. Poor Sora. Well, when he makes it out of surgery tell him I wish he gets better soon." She patted Kairi's shoulder comfortingly.

And, strangely enough, Kairi felt better instantly.

---

They must have dozed off after that, because the next thing Kairi knew a distant clang sounded, rousing her partially. She faintly noticed that she was learning against Naminé's shoulder, and Naminé's head was resting over hers, her long blonde hair falling into her face, but she didn't really care because she was so comfortable. All she wanted to do was close her eyes and go back to sleep…

Dimly, Kairi was aware of someone pulling her away from Naminé, shaking her a little, calling her name. She frowned, wanting to be back with Naminé. Damn, when'd she get so tired? She could just close her eyes and sleep forever, with Naminé's comfy shoulder as her eternal pillow.

And she would have done just that, if she hadn't registered the fact that the person who was shaking her had long, silver hair and greeny sort of eyes. Kairi's senses sharpened as she decided that it would be best if she woke up for this person. He was important.

"Kairi! Come on, Kai, don't go back to sleep!" Riku shook her gently, trying desperately to wake her up.

"Riku?" She muttered quietly. Riku let out a sigh of relief and pulled her into a tight hug.

"Nobody's dying on my watch." He laughed into her ear.

She felt the warm arms pull away as she was lifted up by a doctor and placed gently into a bed. A cold sensation washed over her mouth; someone was putting an oxygen mask over her face. It made her feel ten times more awake in seconds.

"Where's Naminé?" Kairi asked, feeling a little more alert, looking around. "Naminé. Where is she?" The nurse began to push her bed away, and Riku followed beside Kairi.

"They took her away. She's fine, Kairi." Riku smiled at her.

"And Sora?" Kairi asked, feeling a little sick with the motion of the bed.

"He's set for a full recovery, and worried sick about you." Riku smiled, almost laughing. This day was really getting on his nerves. His two best friends, both hospitalized in one day from separate incidents… yeah, it was days like these that made his hair turn silver in the first place.

"Naminé… I have to see her! Make sure she's okay… okay?" Kairi told Riku, head a little muddled.

Riku grabbed Kairi's hand in his "We have to see Sora first, okay? He's in the recovery ward, so once you get a little better we'll go see him, then we'll go see Naminé. Okay, Kairi?"

Although the bed was in full motion, she tried to sit up and hop off. "I'm fine, we have to go see Sora so we can go see Naminé." She said to the nurse.

"Right." The nurse knew it would get her in trouble, taking the girl to the recovery ward instead of her room, but she looked a lot healthier, and all she really needed was to have her blood pressure measured and a snooze, so she saw no harm in her going to see her friend. Besides, it'd put her mind at rest.

The bed stopped, turned around, and went back the way it had come.

"Kairi!" a feeble voice called out once they had made it into the recovery ward.

Kairi sat up again, feeling much better than she had done before. "Sora?" the nurse pulled a curtain aside to reveal a lightheaded Sora, sitting upright on a stack of pillows, drinking orange juice from a straw in a paper cup.

She smiled when she saw that the only thing wrong with him was that he looked very groggy – the blankets were pulled up to his hips and she couldn't see the bandages on his leg.

"How are you feeling?" She asked as the nurse pushed her bed in next to Sora's.

Sora's head rolled around a bit "I feel woozy." His hand rose, dreamily, and he poked Kairi in she shoulder hard. It made her wince. "How are you?"

Kairi pulled the gas mask off her face "I feel like a million bucks." She smiled across at Sora.

"So. How long was I out for?" Sora asked, frowning dreamily off into the distance.

Kairi shrugged "I'd just got to the hospital when they kicked Riku out of the theatre, and then I went to find a phone to call your mum, and I went in the elevator and it broke down. I must have fallen asleep, after that." She scratched her nose "I don't know how long it's been."

"Oh." Sora looked about, confused. "Where's Riku?"

Kairi began to look around for him, too. He'd been standing at the end of their beds, but he wasn't there any more. Panic washed over her, for no reason at all.

"Riku! Where is he?" She climbed off the bed, having the sudden urge to find him, and was hit by a massive dizzy spell. She staggered, and fell down with a loud thump. "Riku?"

The nurse from before ran in and helped Kairi up. Once she was on the bed the nurse roughly shoved the oxygen mask onto her face.

"He's gone to find the phone. And you need to keep this on; it'll make you better."

Kairi gave in and let the nurse finish putting it back on. Once she was gone, she turned to Sora "It seems that our parents are still in the dark about today." Her voice was muffled by the mask.

Sora moaned and put his hand over his face "Man, my mum is gonna _freak_ when she finds out what happened." Taking a deep breath, he offered his orange juice to Kairi. She took a quick sip from the straw and handed it back. The strong flavor made her feel a lot better. "Riku was with me the whole time, so she won't be mad at him."

"Tell me what happened." Kairi asked as Sora finished the last of his juice.

"Well, when we got to the shore Riku half carried me, half dragged me to the hospital. There was blood all through his boat; I'll have to clean it up later. Anyway, when we got inside he dumped me on the bench and they took one look and put me in a bed. I was in Emergency for a little while, and they gave me a needle and some pills to make it stop hurting and looked at it. The doctor said some stuff with long words in it, and they took an X-ray." He put his empty paper cup on the bench beside his bed.

"They took one look at the x-ray and said 'we need to operate.' And then there was a piece of paper me and Riku had to sign 'cause our parents weren't here, and then they took me into a room and gave me some needles and wheeled me out into the theatre." Sora's eyes closed in horror "There were so many doctors there… it was scary."

Kairi patted his shoulder. Sora continued his story "Riku just came out of nowhere, wearing this big plastic jacket thing and a shower cap over his head, and he looked really stupid, but I was really glad to see him. Then the doctors put a gas mask over my face, and the last thing I remember was holding Riku's hand." He shrugged "Next thing I knew, I was here and I couldn't see Riku anywhere."

Kairi giggled at the thought of Sora and Riku holding hands. And the thought of Riku in a shower cap. The whole situation just seemed pretty funny to her.

As if on cue, the boy himself appeared at the foot of their beds, minus shower cap, much to her disappointment.

"So, um, I called your parents, Sora, and they're on their way. Your dad got a bit angry at me, but when I told them how I dragged your sorry backside to the hospital he forgave me." He said, running his fingers across his scalp before turning to Kairi "And I called yours too – your mum said something about pressing charges." He smirked at her. "Sucks to be the elevator company right now."

Kairi smiled and shook her head. Her mother was certainly a fighter, and Riku was his regular arsehole self once the danger was gone and everyone was safe. Things were finally as normal as they would be for a while.

The nurse came in, looking a little harassed. "Kairi, you have to go to your room now." She forced a smile as she pulled Kairi's bed away.

"Bye, Sora." She said quietly as she passed him. Sora waved dreamily at her. Riku waved too. Kairi momentarily panicked.

"I have to be here when his parents get in." He explained as he sat in the chair next to Sora's bed. Kairi was afraid of the thought of being alone, but she figured Sora needed the support more than she did. Besides, she would soon be seeing Naminé again, and for some reason, the thought cheered her up more than the mental image of Riku being handcuffed to her bed.

"So we're going to see Naminé now?" Kairi asked the nurse once they were out of the ward.

"Naminé, she's the girl who was stuck in the lift with you, right?" Kairi nodded "Well, she was here with her parents, visiting a friend, and as soon as Naminé was conscious they took her home." The nurse said calmly, assuming that Kairi could just call her or something once she was free to go.

Kairi's stomach sank in disappointment.

_I didn't even get to say goodbye._

---

**Author's Notes:**** Some of you may remember my stuffed tiger, Benjamin. Yeah, well, he's making it very hard to type right now. _**

**He pointed out to me that I seem to enjoy hurting Sora a lot. And I lol'd when I realized he was right. **

**Most hospitals do actually let one person into operating theatres while the patient is still awake. I was mauled by a dog when I was nine and I had two operations, and I can still remember my dad coming in to see me, shower cap and all. xD I'm pretty sure it's relatives and guardians only, though, but whatever. This is a fanfiction – I can do whatever I like.**

**Don't ask me what Naminé's other nail polish colours mean, they will all get their own appearances by the time this fic is over, don't stress~**

**AH! What is this? A hint of Riku/Sora? D Maybe.**

**Anyway. I'd be forever happy if at least one person reviewed this, even if it's to flame. I feel like I'm talking to myself here. D:**


	3. Three

The weeks went by. Kairi felt better after a long nap in her lonely hospital room, but she was a little scared of elevators now. Her mother had yelled at a couple of doctors, but once the boss of the hospital promised to get the elevator serviced regularly, she was contented and Kairi moved on.

Sora had a giant brace all the way up his leg, and couldn't run or climb or jump. He spent most of his time indoors, bored out of his brains, so Riku and Kairi made it a habit to visit him every day. Occasionally they'd bring presents for him – little brain games and mind toys, puzzles to keep his sharp mind busy when he was bored and alone. Seeing as Sora couldn't go to the island any more Riku and Kairi promised not to go either, so Sora wouldn't feel left out. Riku ended up cleaning the blood out of his boat in the end, because he used it for some occasional fishing.

Kairi hadn't seen anything of Naminé since that day – the incident with the lift was in the newspaper, and she saw a grayscale picture of Naminé's face next to the picture of hers, but that was it. She caught herself looking at the photo a lot, and thinking about how it just didn't do Naminé any justice. Her hair was a beautiful shade of blonde that the picture hadn't captured, and her icy blue eyes were far sharper and clearer than the picture showed. In the end, she clipped out the article and stuck it on the wall next to her bed.

As the months grew cooler, school started for the year. Once again Kairi found herself in the monotonous rush of books, pens and whiteboards. She liked school, and she was a fairly bright student, but more often than not she found her mind drifting to a certain blonde with nails that were all the colours of the rainbow.

Butterflies reminded her of Naminé, as she had them on her clothes every time Kairi had seen her, and there was that butterfly charm. Kairi considered herself something of an artist, and she liked to draw a bit during classes. She usually drew birds, boats and flowers, but these days she found more and more butterflies on her page than anything else.

One such day found her in English, half way through a very boring lecture on Hamlet, seated next to her friend Selphie. The school had a really dumb policy; all of the 'major' classes, such as English, Maths, Science and P.E were to have single sex classes. All others, like History, Economics and other 'unimportant' subjects were unisex. Kairi had no idea why, but she did enjoy the quieter lessons and being able to have class discussions about periods and childbirth and wiping front to back without embarrassing anyone.

Her mind, full of tampons and C-sections, was rudely plunked back to earth when she felt someone nudge her elbow. Stunned, she looked up, to see everyone in the class staring at her with the same bewildered expression.

"And what is so funny, Kairi?" The teacher asked, staring at her with a mocking amusement. Kairi liked her; she was a pretty cool teacher. But if you messed up in her class, she would ridicule you for weeks.

"Um, pardon?" Kairi muttered, straightening up when she realized she was hunched over her books.

"Kairi" Selphie muttered to her, giggling "You were giggling madly about tampons and butterflies."

"Butterflies?"

Kairi stared at her, unsure whether to be insulted or embarrassed. True, she'd been thinking about tampons, but she certainly wasn't thinking about butterflies.

…Or had she? It was like trying to hold water with her bare hands – the details were lost to her now. Maybe butterflies were always on her mind – or maybe her head was just full of butterflies and nothing else. A quick glance at her notes confirmed this; there was very little Hamlet and many butterflies in the margin.

"Well, if Kairi's finished reminding herself to pick up some tampons on the way home from school, we really should get back to Hamlet."

She sunk down into her seat, as if trying to hide under her desk, cheeks burning a furious crimson.

---

"So, you wanted to buy some…" a snort of laugher "… _tampons_?"

Kairi shot daggers at Sora. "Who the hell told you about that?" She snarled, fingers tightening around her paper cup dangerously.

Sora shrugged "I heard it through the grapevine." He chugged half of his banana smoothie in one go before clutching his head and crying out something about a brain freeze.

"Whatever." Kairi sighed, sipping at her own strawberry smoothie. "I probably should pick some up, though…" She trailed off in thought, politely keeping all gruesome details to herself while in male company.

"Okay, so we'll stop at the drugstore. I need a new pen as well, since _someone_" Riku sent a menacing glare at Sora "Decided to chew up my last one and make it explode everywhere."

Sora shrugged "Fine, I'll buy you a new freaking pen. The newsagency is next to the drugstore anyway, we can get Riku's stupid pen while Kairi's getting her corks." He muttered grumpily as Kairi suppressed a giggle. Corks? What a funny name – and so accurate, too! Whoever came up with it was a genius.

Once over her giggling fit, she stood up from the food court table. Glancing about the local shopping center, she nodded. "Sounds like a plan. Let's move."

Tossing their empty cups in the bin as they passed, the three slowly made their way over to the drugstore. Sora rushed ahead and, despite his huge leg brace and crutch, was lost to the newsagency, leaving Riku and Kairi dawdling along.

"Hey, Riku?" Kairi asked, fighting a smile.

"Mm?" Riku glanced down at her.

"Why's Sora so grumpy about your pen exploding? He seems to care more than you do."

Riku chuckled and rammed his hands into his pockets as far as they'd go.

"He was chewing on it when it decided to explode."

Kairi laughed. Silly Sora, he deserved as much.

"It was also a red pen. It looked like he was vomiting blood all over his book, what with the terrible racket he was making. For a second there the teacher thought I'd punched him or something." He smirked "Scared the shit out of everyone, but I was just laughing."

Again, Kairi laughed. "It would have scared me too."

"Yeah, it was quite the sight to see."

Eventually, they reached the shops and went their separate ways. Once inside the drugstore, Kairi grabbed a basket. She'd been paid the day before - might as well stock up while she was here.

The first thing she grabbed was a box of tampons. Just to get it out of the way, and if Riku and Sora decided to join her they wouldn't see the small box, hidden at the bottom of her basket.

She made her way to the makeup isle, examining various cosmetics. Eventually, she settled for some foundation, eyeliner and mascara. It was all she ever really wore, anyway. Some girls just caked the stuff on, but Kairi used it sparingly. Except for special events – she even broke out the eye shadow for those.

Whole browsing, she came upon the coloured nail vanish. The school had a strict "no nail polish" policy, so she only rarely wore nail polish, and only then during the school holidays and for special events. She didn't like to wear the stuff, because it made her short, bitten-off fingernails look even shorter and scruffier.

She spotted a shade of light blue, she smiled. _Nail polish is for people like Naminé._

Regardless, she caught herself reaching out, selecting the lightest shade of blue she could find, and sneaking it into her basket, hidden safely beside her tampons.

On her way to the counter, she spotted the spinning jewelry rack from the corner of her eye. Glancing around her, she decided what the heck, and moved closer to take a look. None of the bracelets caught her fancy. She preferred those rubber band things those charities gave out, because they were easy, fun, colourful, and for a good cause. What's not to love? None of the earrings stood out to her, either. A couple of pairs were pretty cute, but didn't appeal enough for her to buy them.

She spun the stand around gently to look at the necklaces.

Most of the stuff was pretty bland. The usual gold chains, those horrible chunky beads that hung to your knees, and a couple of chokers, similar to the one she had worn at the age of fourteen.

Just as she was about to give up, she spotted a small butterfly pendant, hanging from a delicate silver chain.

Pausing, she reached out to touch it. Before she could, someone called her name.

Looking up, she met the gaze of Sora and Riku, standing several feet away, urging her to hurry up. She blushed furiously, stepping back from the stand, as if she'd been caught doing something wrong, but her friends didn't notice. However, she changed her mind and snatched the butterfly necklace from the stand before hurrying over to the check-out counter, heart pounding in her ears.

---

"Kairi!"

Kairi, 'off with the fairies', as her grandmother had put it, spun around dumbly to locate the source of the voice.

She was standing near the Deli at the supermarket, clutching a bag of oysters. After a quick glance, she didn't spot anyone. In fact, there was nobody to be seen, even behind the counter. And eerie silence washed over her surroundings, sending a chill down her spine.

Just for something to do, she put her oysters in a trolley she hadn't noticed before, next to all of her other groceries, which she didn't remember putting in there.

"You're ignoring me, _again_?" The voice called, closer this time.

Again, Kairi turned, to come face-to-face with a blonde girl with piercing blue eyes and golden blonde hair. She almost jumped out of her skin.

"Naminé!" She laughed, hand over her heart, learning against her trolley "You scared me!"

Naminé didn't respond. She just stared at Kairi sadly.

"Naminé?" Kairi asked, concerned "What's wrong?"

Naminé closed her eyes, looking like she was about to cry. "You're wrong, Kairi. You're always so rude to me, and you always look so uncomfortable when you're near me." She looked away. "You don't like me."

For some reason, Kairi wanted to do anything within her power to stop the other from crying. Naminé crying seemed like a very, very bad thing, and she had to make her feel better, and quickly.

"Naminé, I'm sorry. It's just me, being a bitch, and it doesn't reflect you or anything. I like you so much, and nothing will ever change that, okay?" Kairi placed her hands on Naminé's shoulders, trying to comfort her.

"Kairi…" Naminé shuddered. A single tear rolled down her cheek, and Kairi's heart almost broke "… This isn't working. I think we should break up."

"WHAT!?"

Kairi sat bolt upright in her bed, sending several stuffed toys and a blanket flying across the bed. For a moment, she froze, trying to figure out where she was, eyes scanning the darkness frantically.

Finally, she realized that she was in her bedroom, and she fell back to her bed with a flop, breathing heavily, desperately shuffling through her mind.

Kairi believed that dreams meant things, and she often received messages from her subconscious via her dreams. Her mother had given her a book about interpreting dreams, and she studied it every morning, trying to figure out what her daily message was. You're eating too much crap, your friend is going through a hard time and you should be nice because nobody knows about it, be more cheerful, you bitch, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera.

One such dream had told her that Sora and Riku were probably more than friends, and she didn't doubt this one bit. In the dream, Riku had been standing waist deep in the shallows of the ocean by the play island, and Sora was standing on the beach, blinded by the sunlight. Quite suddenly, the sea drew out into a massive tidal wave, and Riku turned, smirked at Sora, and held his hand out, even though they were a good thirty feet apart. Sora sprinted to Riku, but just as their fingers touched the wave crashed down, forcing them both under.

Swirling, confused, Sora opened his eyes to witness Riku being calmly carried out to sea by a riptide, but no matter how much Sora struggled he couldn't swim to him, and he was eventually swept away, in the opposite direction.

Her dream book had pointed out all of the subtle signs, such as the water, which represented an affair, and the desperation of being separated by the tide, which represented life's rules. Ever since that night, Kairi had looked for more subtle signs, such as smiles, the odd glance and even the random accidental brushing of hands when they walked next to each other, and found them in tenfold. And, quite frankly, while she was a little creeped out, she was very happy for both of them.

However, Kairi didn't have to get out her book to piece this puzzle together. It was obvious.

It was just her and Naminé, alone together in a place where there should have been a lot of other people.

Her sudden anguish at Naminé's pain.

And, of course, the fact that they had been dating.

Added to the fact that she could never get the blonde from her mind during the waking hours, the butterflies that kept showing up in her book, the tiny, unopened bottle of blue nail polish on her table, and the small butterfly pendant that now hung safely around her neck.

Yes, it was pretty obvious.

_Holy smoking pancakes, _Kairi thought to herself, _I've got a crush on Naminé._

---

**Author's Notes:**** The plot thickens! :O**

**And I'm also introducing the concept of sub-plots – however, the whole "high school romance" theme this story is taking is cliché and predictable, so I'll be doing my best to keep you on the edge of your seats.**

**Riku/Sora? It's my OTP – what did you expect? :P Expect to see a little more of it – that's all I can really say.**

**I had to actually do a bit of research for this chapter – cosmetics are a foreign concept to me. ._.**

**I enjoy making Kairi spacey. xD And yes, she sleeps with stuffed animals. Everybody does. You love it.**

**Short chapter, what are you going to do? I can promise you the next chapter will be longer and more interesting. :D**

**Thanks goes to my loyal reviewer. I'd be lost without you, Kia~**


	4. Four

By now, Kairi felt she could safely assume Naminé didn't go to the same school as her.

It wasn't a very big school – it only had a couple hundred pupils – and Kairi knew almost everyone. The school was pretty close-knit, and if she didn't know someone's name she certainly knew their face. Kairi had never seen anyone quite like Naminé before, and in the months after their meeting, she didn't see anyone who even remotely resembled her.

Not that she was looking, or anything stalkerish like that. She'd just be walking along and she'd spot a golden blonde head from the corner of her eye, and once she turned to get a closer look she'd find it belonged to a short-haired boy or someone else who looked nothing like Naminé.

Kairi was fascinated by Naminé. As she came to think of her more often, she realized how painfully little she actually knew about the blonde. All she really knew was that her favorite colour was blue, her least favorite was green, and she liked butterflies. Naminé wasn't an enigmatic person, she was far from it, Kairi just never got the chance to get to know her at all.

The days turned into weeks, and the week turned into months, and Kairi still saw nothing of the other girl. She'd always been very happy with her lifestyle, but now it felt like something was missing. Life went on, much as it had before. Riku and Sora had almost forgotten Naminé, the incident at work was ancient history, and nobody really cared about the broken elevator any more, as it had long since been fixed. Sora's leg was removed from the brace and now had only a thin layer of bandages over it, and the newspaper clipping on the wall became dusty and slightly yellowed with age.

The tiny bottle of blue nail polish went unopened, but Kairi began to let her nails grow out. They got in the way a lot and broke often, but were useful when it came to scratching various itches and picking small objects off the ground. The small butterfly charm could always be seen hanging around her neck or tucked under her school uniform.

However interested Kairi was with Naminé, she couldn't afford to spend every waking second thinking of her. Sure, the blonde was never far from her thoughts, but as life went on Kairi began to slowly accept the fact that she might not see the other girl again, and she got used to the fact that life seemed a little duller now.

Slowly, the months began to cool down, and school broke off for the mid term break at last. Sure, the holiday was only a week long, but after the long term Kairi was happy with any sort of rest.

As Sora now had enough movement in his leg to jog, the three decided it would be good to pay a visit to the play island again, to celebrate the holidays and to make sure none of the buildings had fallen down. However, Sora was still on medication and his energy was quickly spent, so they decided it best for him to ride in Riku's boat.

Riku hadn't slept much the night before, and dark shadows hung under his eyes. Because of this, he rowed slower than usual, and Kairi reached the island before Riku was even halfway there.

The boat was silent for a while. Sora, sitting in the back seat, watched Riku rowing slowly, head cocked slightly to the side.

"Hey, Riku?" He asked after a short while. Riku looked over at him.

"Hmm?" He mumbled.

"Just how much sleep did you get last night?"

Riku thought for a moment. "Um, three hours?" He blinked blearily "Something like that."

Sora nodded, standing up. The boat shook dangerously, and Riku shot a glare at him. "Sora, sit down! You'll capsize us!" He yelled. He'd capsized before, and it was not an easy task to flip the boat back over and clamber in.

Plus, the doctor had ordered Sora to keep his wounds dry.

"Scoot over, I'm going to help you row." Sora pushed at Riku, squeezing down beside him as the boat wobbled. The seat was only big enough for one, so it was quite a tight fit, but they managed somehow. They each took one oar and began to row.

"We're going in circles." Riku grunted after a few minutes. And indeed, the boat had gone in one big circle, and they were now headed away from the island.

Sora pulled harder on his oar, assuming it was his fault, but the boat began to turn even more sharply than before. With a laugh, he turned to Riku "Pull harder, Riku!'

Muttering grumpily under his breath, Riku began to pull his oar harder, and for a moment the boat went in a straight line. However, it began to veer off in the opposite direction, and soon they were again headed away from the island. Sora's face was growing pink from the effort, while Riku's went even paler from exhaustion.

"Sora, you moron! Get back over there; I was doing fine by myself." Riku pushed Sora in the direction of the back seat and taking over the oars.

Before too long, Riku's boat pulled up next to Kairi's. Sora stumbled out of the boat and began to wander up the deck while Riku secured the boat.

"Oh, good, you've finished making out."

Both boys looked up at the same time to see a slightly pissed Kairi standing on the shore, arms folded. Sora's face burned pinker while Riku's went whiter from shock.

"What the hell, Kairi? We weren't making out!" Riku snapped. He was far too tired to deal with any of this crap.

"I could say the same to you! What took you so long, and why is Sora's face as red as a crab?" Kairi gestured to a very pink Sora, who turned around and walked away, coughing.

Riku straightened up and pushed past Kairi "I don't need to explain myself, but I can assure you that nothing happened. Now, if you'll excuse me, there's a coconut over there with my name written on it."

Kairi, standing alone on the dock, eyed Sora, who was strolling along the beach slowly, and Riku, who was scrambling up the nearest tree to fetch a coconut. Her gaze shifted between them for a minute, and she couldn't help but believe Riku. Whatever had made them both act so strange was certainly innocent enough, but she had no idea how long things would stay innocent for.

Not that she really cared, mind you. So long as she didn't walk in on them kissing or anything. That would be plain weird.

Kairi had planned to make some more Thyssa charms, and had brought some string from home. Going back to her boat, she grabbed the string and pushed it into her pocket. Glancing about once more, she spotted something that was a little unusual.

Next to her floated her boat, and behind it bobbed Riku's boat. However, on the other side of the jetty, where Sora's boat was usually tied, floated another boat that she had never seen before.

Riku, Sora and her boats were all unpainted, because none of them saw the need to paint them. However, this boat has several colourful swirling designs splashed onto the sides, and only one oar. The interior was completely empty aside a pair of worn-down sandals that she had never seen before. Kairi had no idea whose boat this could be; none of the other kids ever came here anymore, and none of them had boats like this one.

"Hey, guys. There's someone else here!" She called, stepping onto the shore and making after Sora, who was headed for the shack.

Sora turned to look at her "What?"

"You heard me. There's a boat tied to the dock that I've never seen before." She caught up with the baffled-looking Sora.

"Really?" He asked, heading back the way he'd come "I'll go have a look."

Kairi didn't really see the need for it, but she nodded. "Whatever makes you happy, cripple." Sora threw some curses at her and hobbled off.

Feeling a little thirsty, Kairi headed for the small freshwater waterfall nearby. After a moment of inspection, she pulled a plastic cup from a crack in the rock. The cup itself was old and weather-worn, from years of use by all of the kids that used to frequent the island, but it still held water and that was good enough for Kairi.

After drinking her fill, Kairi replaced the cup and looked about. Sora was sitting in the strange boat, and Riku was nowhere to be seen. While she was refreshed from her drink, Kairi still felt the need for some shade. Her eyes came to rest on the entrance to the secret place. The shadows of the entrance seemed very appealing to her, so she made her way over.

She'd grown a lot over the summer, and she had to stoop to get through the tunnel, but once she was inside the roof shot up and she could straighten up. Once her eyes had gotten used to the darkness, Kairi began to wonder about.

As kids, they'd all gotten rocks and scratched pictures into the walls. Most of the drawings were still very visible. Kairi felt like she was walking through a museum of time – this picture was from four years ago, this one from six, this one from nine years ago, and it still looked just as clear as it had done on the day she drew it.

Finally, she came to one from roughly eleven years ago.

It was a picture of Sora's head, and next to it was a picture of her own. She'd been roughly five years old when she drew this one. Sora was sitting next to her, drawing also. She remembered thinking that she'd draw him a picture, as a sort of present. When she looked over she saw that he'd being drawing a picture of her, obviously with the same intention. The two had laughed for a bit and then went off, doing their own things.

However, roughly halfway through the third grade, she'd come in to draw a flower or something, when she'd spotted an update to the drawing – a hand was holding a paopu to Kairi's mouth.

Kairi wasn't sure if Sora had drawn it, but as the years went by any suspicion that Sora had a crush on her faded away. To put it frankly, Kairi was pretty convinced that Sora was now gay for his best friend.

Which she was totally cool with, by the way.

As she let her fingers brush over the drawings lightly, she inwardly sighed over the whole situation. She'd only liked Sora when they were very young, and she couldn't ever recall looking at Riku as anything other than an older brother. They were her best friends, nothing more. And though she'd like them to stay that way, she couldn't deny that the thing Riku and Sora seemed to have for each other had been in the works for quite some time. They would make a good couple, knowing each other so well and all.

A grunt snapped her out of her daydream, and she looked over her shoulder to spot the shadows on the wall moving. Someone was coming down the tunnel, and they didn't seem to know where they were going – Riku and Sora knew the place like the back of their hands.

Kairi scrambled onto her feet just as the mystery person stumbled around the corner. However, they must have tripped over a rock or something, because all Kairi saw was a flash of yellow and the newcomer was on the ground.

Kairi's heart leapt into her mouth as she recognized the fallen girl.

"Naminé!" She rushed over and began to help the other to her feet. Naminé looked up in surprise, and her face cracked into a warm smile that made Kairi week at the knees.

"Kairi?" She ignored her hand and climbed up by herself. "So you've began to pay a little more attention to the world around you?"

Kairi just laughed. "What brings you here?"

Naminé shrugged "I was out in my boat, just going for a cruise, when I spotted this island with a bunch of wooden buildings on it, so I thought I'd take a look around." She was wearing a blue shirt today, and a purple skirt. The butterfly necklace was again hanging around her neck. As she dusted her front off, Kairi caught a pink glint.

"Yeah, this is our play island. Me and my friends have been coming here since we were really young, and our dads built the buildings and stuff one summer." She smiled "Pink nails today?"

Naminé smiled right back "Pink is curious." Without any warning, she seized Kairi into a big hug, wrapping her thin arms around the other and nuzzling her cheek against Kairi's. "It's good to see you again, Kairi!"

Kairi was a little too stunned to react for a second, but then her heart skipped three gears and went straight into overdrive as she awkwardly put her arms around the other's hips. "I missed you." She whispered with the ghost of a smile.

Kairi wasn't an expert on things like this, but she felt pretty sure they hugged for a moment longer than they were supposed to. Who the hell decided that there should be 'rules' to hugging a person you care for? Bougas. That person needed to be tied up and shot.

She was almost too caught up in her internal rant to catch Naminé's whispered response.

"I missed you, too."

When the time came to reluctantly pull away from each other, Kairi found Naminé's cheeks were a light pink. She was pretty sure her own were also pink, so she kept quiet.

"So, would you like a guided tour of the place? It's a little more interesting when you know the stories behind things." Kairi smiled at Naminé, who smiled right back at her.

"Sounds like a plan."

---

"Wow, that tree looks like it's about to fall out of the earth and into the sea."

Kairi approached said tree, placing a fond hand on the trunk. "This is a paopu tree. It bears the most delicious fruit, all year round." She jumped up and began to pace the length of the trunk, Naminé looking on worriedly "There are only a couple of other paopu trees on the islands, so I'm not sure if they naturally bend this way or if it's just bent from people standing on it all the time." She laughed. "They're pretty rare."

Naminé pointed to a star shaped fruit, hanging next to the leaves. "Is that a paopu fruit?"

Kairi turned and nodded "They grow pretty fast, and they're really hard to get, so there's usually one or two hanging about." She jumped down onto the sand and approached Naminé, excitement glinting in her eyes.

"Did you know that if two people share a paopu fruit their destinies become intertwined?" She sat down on the trunk, her feet kicking at the air "They'll be a part of each other's lives, no matter what."

Naminé awkwardly sat down next to Kairi, unused to sitting on a tree "That sounds like a crock of shit."

Kairi took one look at Naminé's serious expression and burst into laughter. Of all the responses she was expecting, that was certainly not one of them.

"I mean really. Have you ever tried this?" Naminé gestured towards the fruits, ignoring Kairi's laughter.

Kairi thought for a second "I've eaten a couple of the fruits, but I've never shared it with anyone. I forgot my lunch a couple of times." She laughed sheepishly "I don't think any of my friends have tried it either, but I have a couple of suspicions."

Naminé's eyebrow quirked and she turned to Kairi "Suspicions?"

Kairi just laughed. Pink certainly was curious. "I shouldn't say much, because I'm not sure and I have no proof."

"Proof of what?"

Kairi and Naminé turned simultaneously, to see Sora hobbling towards them.

"Oh, hey Sora! This is Naminé; hers is the boat at the jetty." She waved cheerfully at Sora, and turned back to Naminé "This is Sora; he's the one who has surgery."

Naminé jumped from the tree and held a hand out to Sora "It's nice to meet you at last."

Sora, obviously unused to formal greetings in a casual setting, chuckled and awkwardly shook Naminé's hand. "The, um, pleasure's all mine?" He smiled in a confused way.

Naminé and Kairi giggled at the same time, sending chills up Sora's spine. Creepy.

Kairi looked down at the beach to spot Riku strolling along, dragging a long stick behind him, marking a long line in the sand.

"Hey Riku! Get up here and meet our guest!" She called gleefully. Riku dropped his stick dramatically and headed for the shack.

"So you're the one who Kairi force-fed some coins to?" Sora grinned mockingly. Kairi cringed, but Naminé just laughed.

"Yes. It was quite a good shot, actually. I would have laughed if I wasn't in such a foul mood." Naminé shrugged; glad to be accepted by this strange boy. She didn't actually have many friends at home, and it was nice to meet new people.

"So you're Naminé?" A deep voice behind her stated. Naminé turned to spot a blank-faced silver haired boy who looked at least three years older than her. His piercing green eyes sent shivers up her spine – it felt like he was looking straight through her.

"Yes. Riku, I presume?" She smiled, offering her hand. Riku just ignored it as he pushed past to learn against the tree trunk, next to Kairi. Naminé, feeling a little embarrassed, lowered her hand.

"Don't worry about him; he just doesn't like strangers." Sora said calmly, and Naminé nodded slowly.

"Naminé, whereabouts do you live?" Kairi asked her. Naminé pointed to the south.

"I live on Fate Island." Kairi and Sora nodded. Destiny was the biggest island in the chain of islands, and the closest and second-largest was Fate Island. "I live with my mum on Fate Island, and during the holidays I live with my dad on Destiny."

Ah. That's why Kairi hadn't seen Naminé for so long.

"Your parents are divorced?" Sora gaped. Divorce wasn't a common thing on the Islands, and it was particularly unusual for a couple to divorce after having kids. Most people just stuck it out until their kids were old enough to fend for themselves.

"Since I was three." Naminé shrugged. "I don't know why, but I guess it's better than them fighting all of the time." Everyone nodded. It made sense.

"Look at the sun; we should probably head home now." Riku said quietly, eyes on the sunset.

Naminé stepped forward, staring at the sunset "That's the most beautiful sunset I've ever seen."

Kairi giggled. When you saw it so often you began to forget just how perfect it was. Sora jumped up onto the tree trunk to sit next to Kairi, leaving Naminé standing alone, several feet behind. As she watched the silhouette of the three friends against the sunset, she was struck by how right the scene felt.

Shortly after, she felt that she was intruding, and probably shouldn't be there. After a few uncertain seconds, she turned around and began to slink away.

---

"Where'd you go yesterday?" Naminé looked up from her coffee and into the deep violet eyes of Kairi, who was frowning down at her.

"There was someplace I had to be." Naminé lied calmly, licking the froth from her spoon and looking about. Destiny café wasn't particularly busy today. Only a couple of the booths were taken, and she was the only person sitting at a table.

Kairi nodded and took the seat opposite Naminé. "Still, you could have said goodbye or something. We weren't trying to exclude you." Truth be told, Kairi was a little hurt when she realized Naminé was gone. She mentally lashed herself with a whip when she realized how uncomfortable Naminé would have felt.

Naminé shrugged "Whatever. How are you today, Kairi?" Kairi noticed Naminé's nails – they were a light turquoise.

"I'm fine. And you are… happy in a sad way? Or sad in a happy way?" Kairi smiled at Naminé, fiddling with one of the sugar packets.

"I'd describe it as 'whatever'." Naminé sipped at her coffee thoughtfully.

"I see. What do you have planned for today?" A glance at the wall clock revealed 8 AM.

Naminé shrugged "I need some stuff for school, so I figured I'd go shopping. Why, do you want to come?"

Kairi sighed "I can't, as much as I'd love to. I'm working until 12, and I can't just walk out and keep my job."

Naminé smiled, stirring her coffee slowly. "Meet you at 12, then?"

Kairi smiled right back "Sounds like a plan."

---

Naminé re-appeared in the café at exactly noon, just as Kairi was pulling off her apron. Kairi had been out of it all day, so looking forward to her outing was she. She'd show Naminé some of her favorite shops, and if they were lucky they might bump into more of Kairi's friends and she could introduce them to Naminé.

Kairi still hadn't forgotten her dream from months ago, and her irrational thoughts when she woke up. Her? Crushing on Naminé? Please. She wasn't a lesbian, and she couldn't just like someone after only seeing them twice, briefly. These things took time. Kairi was simply fascinated by Naminé, and wanted to get to know her better. That was all.

These conclusions only half satisfied Kairi. It didn't explain how her heart leapt every time she saw the other girl, and it didn't even mention the weakening of the knees when she smiled at her.

Which is exactly what happened when she strolled out of the kitchen and saw Naminé chatting cheerfully to one of the other girls who worked with Kairi. Nope. No crush. Just fascination. That's all.

"Ready to go?" Naminé asked as Kairi approached. She nodded, and the two made their way out of the café.

"What did you need first? There's a newsagency just over there." Kairi pointed to the newsagency, next to the drugstore.

"Yeah, some stationary would be good. When I shop I tend to go overboard so I have to get the essentials first." Naminé made a silly face at her weakness, sending Kairi's heart fluttering.

"I'm like that too." Kairi laughed "You probably picked the wrong person to go shopping with."

Naminé shrugged like it wasn't a big deal "I'd pick you even if you were the wrong person."

Kairi laughed "I'm flattered."

They made their way into the newsagency, and Naminé bought a case of coloured pencils and some pens. Once that was done, they headed to the nearest clothes shop and began looking through the clothes.

After much looking, Kairi tried on a short pink dress with a black hood. Naminé said she looked cute and snapped a picture with her phone. Kairi bought the dress, even though it was worth a month's pay from Destiny.

Naminé didn't try anything on from that shop, but the next shop they went into found her in a tight black shirt that read "My destiny is with Destiny Island". Kairi just laughed at her when she bought it. She also bought a white shirt with a paopu fruit on it.

"I'd share it with you, Kairi, but I don't want to flash anyone." She winked when she tried it on. A dirty thought crossed Kairi's mind and she mentally smacked herself. She got out her phone and took a picture of Naminé in her paopu shirt, pulling a silly gangster pose in front of the mirror.

The next shop they went into was an accessory shop. Kairi bought a chunky heart pendant that hung to her belly button, and Naminé bought a pair of sunglasses that covered half her face because she thought they looked funny. They took some more photos of themselves and looked about for another shop to raid.

Their next shop was a bookstore, where they both spent a good fifteen minutes just standing there and reading a book, until a snappy sales assistant got angry with them for 'treating her bookstore like a library'. Kairi and Naminé just laughed and moved along.

After accidentally stumbling across a costume shop, they both tried on the silliest costumes they could find. Naminé put on an Elvis outfit, while Kairi went for a chicken suit. They both tried on feather boas and masks, shoes and silly hats. They took a lot of photos of each other and laughed a lot.

Kairi couldn't remember ever having this much fun. Sure, her male friends were good fun and she liked hanging out with them, but quite often she found herself judging sparring matches and races, or making small trinkets with sea shells by herself. It was safe to say Kairi enjoyed having another female friend.

After a couple more shops, they were getting a little hungry. Kairi pointed out a good sandwich bar, and they made for it, getting a sandwich and a bottle of water each.

"This has been a lot of fun." Naminé said happily, munching into her lettuce and egg sandwich.

Kairi nodded "I wish we could do this sort of thing more often."

Naminé shrugged "We could, you know. The only reason I come to Destiny is to see my dad. My friends and my mum are all on Fate, so I guess it makes sense if I spend most of my time there. I could make a couple of weekend trips – it only takes 15 minutes to get here by ferry."

Kairi gaped at her. "Really?"

Naminé giggled and nodded "I could do it, but we wouldn't be able to go shopping every time. I've spent way too much today."

Kairi nodded. She had too, but it was all worth it in the end. "It would be so cool if you come more often. You could meet all of my other friends, and Riku might actually warm up to you with time." Kairi internally squealed with delight at the thought of seeing Naminé every other weekend.

Naminé laughed. "What your favorite movie, Kairi?"

Kairi laughed "Why?"

Naminé shrugged as she took a swig from her water bottle.

"I like the Shawshank Redemption." Kairi smiled "It's an awesome movie."

Naminé nodded "I think I saw that one. Wasn't it about a prison escapade?"

Kairi nodded, biting her sandwich "It talks a lot about friendships and hope and, well, redemption. What's your favorite movie?"

"Pocahontas."

"Really? I've never seen it."

Naminé stared at her like she'd just asked her to take off her clothes and run around naked. Kairi cringed.

"What?"

"You've never seen Pocah—that's it, you are coming to my house and we are watching it and there is nothing you can do to stop it." Naminé banged her fist on the table triumphantly. Kairi laughed.

"Okay then, fine. Shall I bring the Shawshank Redemption?"

"Bring a couple of your other favorites as well – we'll have a marathon." Naminé paused "Oh, and bring a pillow too."

Kairi laughed, delighted at the thought of spending a night at Naminé's, as they scribbled down each other's details.

Checking the time on her phone, Naminé stood up "Well, this has been great, but I have to get going now. I'll see you at eight, yeah?" Kairi nodded as she waved to Naminé.

And before she knew it, the crowd had swallowed Naminé, and Kairi was alone again.

---

**Author's Notes:**** I'd have loved to go into more detail about the shopping scene, but shopping is also a foreign concept to me and I had to go with what I've seen from my friends dragging me around.**

**I'm the type of person who wears whatever the hell happens to be floating at the top of her draws, you see. Do not ask me about coordinating outfits – my brain will explode.**

**My sister actually dragged me shopping when I was halfway through this chapter, and I just stood about making nasty comments about the clothes she looked at. xD In the end she gave up and took me home.**

**The Shawshank Redemption is actually a pretty good movie. You should go see it. :)**


	5. Five

Naminé's front door had to be one of the nicest Kairi had ever seen.

It was a deep brown-y sort of colour, and it had several triangular stained glass panels running across it. It was certainly ordinary enough, but the grandness of it seemed out-of-place on the modest home in the decent enough suburb.

The house itself was nice enough, but had the unmistakable air of being unloved. The front yard sported nothing more than a patch of brown grass, and a small bunch of flowers in the center. The walls were covered in dirt and grime, but the yellow paint disguised most of it. One of the windows on the second floor had been replaced with a plank of wood. It just had a broken, run-down feel about the place.

Still, Naminé lived here sometimes, so it seemed to Kairi fancier than a five star hotel.

She rapped her knuckles against the wood sharply, after searching unsuccessfully for a doorbell. After several long seconds, an unshaven man in his early forties answered the door.

His clothes were nothing out of the ordinary – a polo shirt and jeans. His fair blonde hair was combed messily to one side, revealing chocolate brown eyes set into a long, pale face. He was actually kind of good-looking.

"Are you Kairi?" He asked, his voice throaty and strained, like he'd just swallowed sandpaper.

Kairi nodded.

"I'm Naminé's father – You can call me Frank." He smiled, gesturing Kairi to come in.

"Thank you, uh, Frank." She smiled up at him. He really seemed like a nice guy. Glancing around, she found herself in a medium-sized room. Portraits lined the walls – some painted pictures, others photographs. A medium-sized table sat in the middle of the room, with chairs all around. It was set for three people.

"You can put your things in Naminé's room, if you'd like." He motioned her to follow him, and he made his way through a doorway Kairi hadn't spotted before. The next room sported a couple of reclining chairs, a couch, small TV and coffee table. It was obviously the living room.

"Nammy, your guest is here!" He called up a darkened flight of stairs. A light flickered on and Kairi heard a faint voice in response, as a slender pair of legs appeared at the top.

"Hey, Kairi! Come on up!" Naminé called, disappearing again. Frank smiled at her and left the room. Slowly, uncertainly, Kairi made her way up the stairs. Finding herself in a long, dark corridor, she followed the only source of light, which was coming from a slightly ajar door at the end of the hall.

The first thing that hit Kairi was the smell. The strong scent of nail polish and nail polish remover assaulter her nose, almost making her eyes water. However, she sucked it up and looked about.

Naminé's bedroom was quite spacious – a double bed sat in one corner, covers printed with rainbow butterflies. A small TV stood opposite, a pink PlayStation lying underneath with a tangle of cords. Across the room was a desk the held a lamp, a couple of books and a large, darkened fish tank. Next to it was a small bookshelf, crammed to bursting point with books of all sized and colours. On the floor was a large blue rug.

And on the blue rug, next to a pile of DVDs, some tissues and a bottle of nail polish remover, sat Naminé.

"Heh, sorry about the smell. I'm kind of used to it so I don't notice how bad it gets when I'm doing my nails." She smiled apologetically as her now clean fingers tapped against her kneecap. Kairi almost had to gasp – they were a lot longer than she'd previously thought.

"That's fine. I bet it keeps your dad out, huh?" Kairi smiled, dumping her bag in the corner and throwing her pillow onto the floor next to it.

Naminé laughed and nodded as she stood up, tossed the used tissues into a wastepaper basket and placed the nail polish remover onto the desk. Picking up the top DVD from the pile of DVD cases, she it up for Kairi to inspect. A closer look revealed it to be Pocahontas.

"Ready for some serious movie watching?" She smiled as Kairi stationed herself on the floor. "Oh, we can sit on the bed. That floor isn't very comfortable, and it probably reeks right now." Naminé wrinkled her nose as Kairi shrugged.

"I didn't want to intrude." She muttered as she tossed her pillow carelessly onto the bed. As she lowered herself onto her stomach to watch, the rainbow butterflies of the quilt almost swallowed her. Kairi felt sleepy immediately.

"Don't be silly; you're my guest." Naminé said sternly over her shoulder as she fiddled with the PlayStation.

"That thing plays DVDs?" Kairi asked absently once Naminé had made her way back to the bed, controller in hand.

"It does, and it's quite handy." Naminé smiled across at Kairi, as she lay down on her stomach next to her. They was a big gap between them, but Kairi could feel Naminé's elbow against hers. "I like to play video games some times."

Kairi had only played a PlayStation a couple of times in her life, and it was only fun because she'd been playing against Riku and Sora in a racing game, and the two were doing a running commentary that had her in stitches. Playing by yourself seemed boring and antisocial to Kairi.

Before she could reminisce any further, the movie started. Kairi liked to follow the plot, and she knew from experience that the first scenes usually held vital information about the characters and the storyline, and to miss it would cause you to be completely lost later on. So she paid her undivided attention to the TV.

She barely noticed when Naminé left the room, halfway through the movie and came back with a steaming bowl of buttered popcorn.

"Huh?" Kairi turned to look at her dumbly. On screen, Pocahontas was getting angry at John Smith for calling her kind savages.

"Kairi," Naminé giggled. "Want some popcorn?"

"Oh, sure," Kairi grabbed a handful and turned back to the screen. "I'm really getting into this." She admitted sheepishly. Naminé shrugged, and they watched the rest of the movie in silence, apart from the odd crunches of popcorn.

"Wow, that ending was extremely random." Kairi stated, chewing thoughtfully on a piece of popcorn once John Smith had been carted off. Naminé shrugged. This had been her favorite movie since she was five – she'd never stopped to think about the reason behind the ending.

"Hmm, we should get changed into our PJs." Naminé frowned when she saw the clock. Kairi nodded. "You can change here – I'll change in the bathroom." Naminé grabbed her pajamas and padded out of the room.

When she came back, five minutes later, Kairi just had to stare. She was wearing baggy, dark blue bottoms with light blue love hearts on them. Her shirt was a spaghetti-strap tank top of the same colour, with a big blue love heart splashed across her chest, the words "I wear cute PJs to bed because I don't know who I'll meet in my dreams" printed across it. Also, it was about three sizes too small, and barely covered her navel. Luckily, she wasn't the busty type, and the top kept her chest in place.

Naminé blushed lightly when she caught Kairi staring "All of my other pajamas are in the wash." She dragged her hand through her hair, smiling sheepishly.

Kairi herself was wearing an oversized black shirt and boxers with puppies on them. The shirt had been worn by her mother when she was pregnant with Kairi, and she liked to wear it because it reminded her of her mother. Kairi nodded. Naminé's explanation made sense.

But damn, she looked good.

"Well, did you bring the Shawshank Redemption?" Naminé poked Kairi, who reluctantly climbed out of her comfy little ditch in the bed covers and started rummaging through her bag. She tossed Naminé a blue packet of MnMs.

"How'd you know these were my favorite?" Naminé grinned, once she saw the crispy label.

"Those are your favorites? What a coincidence, there're mine too." Kairi grinned at her as she put the disk into the PlayStation. Naminé tore the packet open and began munching away happily. Soon Kairi was munching away as well, and the MnMs were all gone before the trailers had finished and the movie had even started.

On screen, a man and the lead characters wife started, well, 'getting freaky' against a door. Naminé looked at Kairi in disbelief.

"You brought porn?" She cried in a mock rage. Kairi pretended to be offended. "This had better be the only sex scene in the whole movie!"

Kairi tapped her chin, trying to remember if there were any more. "I'm pretty sure there's no more sex scenes, but one guy almost gets arse-raped about halfway through – hey!" She cried out in protest when Naminé whacked her over the head with her pillow.

"You yoai fangirl!" She cried, walloping Kairi again. Kairi grabbed the pillow from her and returned the assault.

"You love it too~" She sang. Naminé paused and nodded, laughing. She grabbed Kairi's pillow and they spent the next couple of minutes beating each other up with their pillows. Finally, sugar rush spent, they collapsed into a heap, their limbs a comfortable knot. It would probably take a few minutes to pull away even if they really tried. Finally silent, the TV rang out loudly.

"_When do we eat?"_

"_You will eat when we say you eat. You will piss when we say you will piss, and you will shit when we say you shit! You got that, you slimy, dirt bag mother fucker?" _

"Charming."

Kairi snorted. "This guy is a hoot. Every second word out of his mouth should be censored and wrapped in plastic."

"_Put your trust in the Lord. Your arse belongs to me."_

Naminé stared at the screen with her best 'deer in headlights' look.

"Oh God, now they're naked."

Kairi just laughed and allowed her head to rest comfortably in the crook of Naminé's neck. She smelled nice, and Kairi almost fell asleep. The Shawshank Redemption certainly wasn't a kiddy movie, but it was a good one regardless. It had been her grandmother's favorite, and Kairi had enjoyed watching it with her. When her grandmother passed away a year ago, nobody was surprised when the DVD was the first thing Kairi inherited.

"You comfortable there?" Naminé asked, but Kairi just grunted in response, and her breathing slowed down to the regularity of sleep. After a couple of minutes, Naminé tried to pull away from Kairi without waking her, but Kairi just grunted again and wrapped her arms around her tighter. Obviously, the afternoon's shopping spree had worn her out thoroughly.

Naminé shrugged. They were both comfortable, and she could still see the TV, so she settled down to watch the rest of the movie. However, her eyes had other ideas, and began to droop dangerously. Before she had to witness the main character fighting off a homosexual rapist, her brain shut down and she was asleep.

---

Frank loved his daughter, he really did.

So when his ex-wife had asked for custody of Naminé twelve years before, Frank just had to agree. He'd seen families torn completely apart from custody battles, and he didn't want his ruined any more than it was. At least he'd get to see his daughter every second weekend, right?

After a couple of years, Frank moved to Destiny Island for work. His weekend visits were cut to monthly trips. And as the years flew by, Naminé began high school and became too busy for these trips, what with her social life and her studies. So, they'd both adapted to the school holiday visits, and the odd day trip if they missed each other too much and frequent phone calls.

Because of these infrequent visits, there was a lot about Naminé Frank didn't know. He didn't know much about her friends, he didn't know what she liked to do with her spare time at home, and he certainly didn't know where she stood on the whole 'boyfriend' scene.

He hadn't entertained the thought, really. Sure, Naminé was his only offspring, and as a result he was protective of her, but he felt confident enough she'd tell him if she got a boyfriend. It wasn't like he'd gun the boy down or anything; he just wanted to be more involved in his daughter's life.

However, when he gently peeked into her room at 7AM the next morning, to make sure if everything was alright, what he saw left him… a little dumbfounded, to be honest.

Naminé and Kairi were lying on top of the covers in a tangled heap one could only label as cuddling. Their limbs were wrapped around ach other, almost tenderly, and Frank couldn't ever recall Naminé looking that peaceful in sleep before. The girls were fully clothed, but Kairi's oversized shirt had worked its way up throughout the night, revealing slim hips. Thankfully, Naminé's arm was covering everything the shirt had neglected. Just. While it saved Frank from embarrassment, it certainly made him wonder.

Quietly, he closed the door and walked away.

---

Kairi was the first to wake that morning.

As her senses slowly drifted from slumber, she became dimly aware of someone holding her close, but she didn't really care. She had no idea where she was, what time it was, or even who she was. Nothing really mattered. Contented in her little bubble of dark warmth, Kairi let out a sigh, feeling her body tense for a moment.

Wait, her arms were wrapped around someone. Were they supposed to do that?

Blearily, she opened one eye, only to see a golden thing obscuring her vision. Slowly, her curiosity roused her, and she lifted her head to see where she was.

Looking about, the first thing she remembered was that she was on Naminé's bed. The second thing she remembered was that she had fallen asleep in Naminé's arms, and they had obviously stayed that way throughout the night.

Glancing down at Naminé's face, she was struck by how beautiful the girl really was. Those big, clear eyes, the small, delicate nose and the slender, smiling lips… Kairi wondered why she hadn't really noticed any of it before. However, as Kairi became more conscious, she noticed that the big, clear eyes were screwed shut, and the slender lips were twisted into a difficult frown, like she was having a bad dream. For a split second, Kairi fought the almost overpowering urge to wake her and make sure Naminé wasn't having a bad dream. Her arms tightened around her, almost protectively. She would never let any bad dreams hurt Naminé.

The movement roused Naminé, and her big, blue eyes opened slowly, unfocussed. Groggily, her frown flipped into a gentle smile as she noticed Kairi staring at her.

"Mornin'." She yawned. Kairi quite suddenly became aware that her nose was barely an inch away from Naminé's, and hastily pulled away, a blush burning at her cheeks.

Naminé didn't seem to notice Kairi's sudden movement, instead staring at her face with an unreadable expression.

"W-what?" Kairi stammered, unable to tear her gaze away from Naminé's.

Naminé learned forward, as if to whisper something in Kairi's ear. Instead, their cheeks brushed against each other's as she pressed her face against Kairi's eagerly. "Your skin is really smooth, you know." She almost whispered in Kairi's ear. Kairi's heart beat rapidly increased with every breath.

"Yours is too." Kairi muttered, unsure what to feel about this sudden contact.

"I bet your lips are smooth as well." Naminé's voice was pitched into a smirk "I'm willing to bet…" Her voice trailed off as she pulled away from Kairi's ear, her lips tracing her jaw instead. Kairi was too stunned to move. Something in her head was urging her to pull away, to detangle herself from the other girl and run, far, far away, and to never look back. However, a stronger voice was ordering her to stay where she was, for reasons unspecified.

Head a blur of indecisive voices, Kairi remained where she was. She was still frozen up when Naminé's lips pushed against hers, almost hungrily. For one terrifying second, Kairi felt disgusted, but to horrified to move away. However, her instincts kicked in, and she began to return the kiss, just as eagerly as Naminé. All she could see, smell, feel, taste and hear was the other girl. Her stomach was doing back flips, her body felt like it was on fire, and her heart pounded harder than it ever had in her life.

Kairi was almost too shocked to realize that she was enjoying it.

Much too soon, Naminé began to gently pull away. Kairi reluctantly rested her head on the pillow, face barely inches away from Naminé's.

"I meant to do that last night, but you passed out." Naminé giggled giddily.

"I like you." Kairi stated simply, mind a whirl of colours and sounds. Nothing was focused, nothing was recognizable, and nothing mattered. Nothing, that is, except the girl lying beside her.

Naminé's lips tugged upwards into a beautiful smile. "I figured as much."

"Does this mean… we're y'know… girlfriends?" Kairi swallowed carefully at the last word. She wasn't a lesbian – she just felt strongly for Naminé. That didn't make her gay.

Naminé giggled again, sending Kairi's heart fluttering. "If you'd like us to be," Kairi smiled and nodded. Not too eagerly, she hoped.

Landing a short kiss on the end of Kairi's nose, Naminé pushed herself up onto one elbow "Now, if you'll stop being so adorable for a minute, I'm starving." However, their arms and legs were still intertwined, and Naminé rapidly glanced down at their bodies.

"Indecent exposure, Kairi." She grinned. Kairi looked down, confused, and once she saw exactly what she was flashing to Naminé, grabbed her shirt and ripped it down in horror. Naminé just laughed "Nothing I haven't seen before, don't worry."

Still, Kairi went tomato red. Damn, they hadn't been dating for a minute, and already Kairi had revealed a piece of her that she'd have rather kept private until the one year mark.

Before too long, the girls were untangled and heading down to breakfast. At the top of the stairs, Naminé paused and held her hand out to Kairi's. "I can't keep this from my dad." her only explanation. Kairi shrugged and grasped Naminé's hand warmly in hers, and they made their way down the stairs together, hearts beating nervously in union.

Frank was sitting at the table, munching on a bit of toast and reading the morning paper when the girls came in. He looked up at them briefly and paused, toast halfway to his mouth. Naminé nodded happily as Kairi smiled at him sheepishly. Slowly, almost suspiciously, he scanned Kairi up and down, almost as if he was looking for a bomb on her. Finally, after a long minute of nerve-wracking silence, he sighed and shook his head, smiling to nobody but himself. Naminé let out a squeak of delight as Kairi let out a breath she hadn't realized she was holding.

"You treat my girl right, you hear me?" He attempted to growl at Kairi, but failing miserably. It was hard to glower at this girl like she was some idiotic boy; Naminé had talked about her a lot and she seemed like a genuinely sweet girl.

Naminé rushed over and gave him a big hug, squealing her gratitude at his approval. Frank and Kairi couldn't help but laugh at her, each in their own adoring way. After a long moment, she rushed into the kitchen to make herself and her new girlfriend breakfast, singing and laughing as she did so.

Frank and Kairi watched her go, with almost the same expression on their faces. Kairi blushed as they turned to look at each other at the same time.

"So, how long has this been going on for?" Frank smiled at her kindly, sensing her embarrassment.

Kairi checked the clock on the wall. "About five minutes." Frank laughed.

"I'll make a note on the calendar, then."

Kairi's blush deepened.

---

"I wonder where Kairi is." Sora muttered as he sat on the paopu tree.

Riku, who was sitting next to him, simply shrugged. "I think she was spending the night at Naminé's."

Sora nodded. He was happy that Kairi was making new friends, but he kind of missed her humorous yet sometimes cynical remarks.

Riku and Sora sat in silence for a while, eyes trained on the horizon. Time slowly trickled by as the sun rose higher and higher into the sky. The two often sat like this, silently yet contentedly. Several times, Riku considered challenging Sora to a sparring match, but remembered his broken leg and thought better of it. Just as often, Sora thought about migrating to the shore and wading about in the shallows, but he remembered his broken leg and also thought better of it.

"I'm bored." Sora complained after a while.

Riku shrugged "If you weren't handicapped we could spar or have a swim."

Sora glared across at the other boy "If you hadn't handicapped me, you mean."

Riku cringed. "I said I was sorry for that."

Sora shrugged "I know. Just don't get up at me for not being able to do much."

Riku sighed and nodded, and the two lapsed back into a comfortable silence. However, after a minute or so the silence was rudely shattered by a loud rumble from Sora's stomach. He quickly pushed a hand over it, as if to silence it, but it continued to growl in protest.

"Did you have breakfast?" Riku asked casually. Sora shook his head sheepishly. Riku rolled his eyes looked about for something to eat. Stupid Sora. Some fish swam about lazily in the shallows, but he could not be arsed catching one, building a small fire and cooking the thing. They just didn't hold enough meat for it to be worthwhile. Next, he eyed the surrounding trees, but they were all free of edible coconuts. The smaller island was too sunny to grow mushrooms, and Riku didn't want to have to hunt for any.

As a last resort, he looked past Sora and to the top of the tree. There was one paopu fruit hanging lazily from a smaller branch. Riku sighed. Of course.

"I'll go you halves in that paopu fruit, Sora."

Sora's gaze followed Riku's, and a small blush grew across his face. "Are there any coconuts?"

"No."

"Mushrooms?"

"Hardly worth the hassle."

"Um… fish?"

"I didn't bring my fishing line."

Sora sighed. He was hungry enough to eat the paopu fruit, but if he shared it with Riku and someone found out… He shuddered. He wouldn't mind being around Riku for the rest of his life and he certainly was hungry enough to do so, but still.

"Can't I just eat the whole thing?"

Riku's eyes narrowed. "I'm hungry too." The amount of fight Sora was putting up was starting to get to him a little. He hadn't made the paopu fruit their only option on purpose, but he wasn't about to deny it was a good option.

Sora sighed dramatically "If we're both that hungry, I suppose we have no choice."

Riku glared as he crawled to the tip of the tree, which was swaying dangerously under his weight. The ocean loomed under him, but he wasn't afraid of falling. It would just be annoying to have to climb his sorry arse back up onto the island, try again and drip-dry for the rest of the afternoon. Plus, he didn't want to look like a failure in front of Sora. Or anyone, for that matter.

Inching forward slowly, he reached out and carefully plucked the fruit from the tree. It came away easily, as if it wanted to be eaten. He bit into a corner of the star-shaped fruit, needing all four of his limbs to make it back to shore safely. The tangy, sharp taste of the fruit filled his mouth, causing his stomach to grumble angrily. _Soon_, he promised it.

Before long, Riku was climbing down from the tree and onto the stable earth. Instead of letting the fruit fall from his mouth, he tore a chunk away with his teeth as he offered it to Sora, chewing and swallowing it rapidly. The fruit was so sweet it almost made him wince. Sora bit ravenously into the opposite points of the star, almost ripping the whole spike from the rest of the fruit. As he chewed, he handed it back to Riku, who copied his actions.

The whole affair was very un-romantic. Their actions were quick and short, their gazes avoided each other's, and it would seem to a passer-by that the two were simply sharing a piece of fruit and were very, very hungry.

Finally, there was nothing left but the top point and the middle bit. Both boys were drooling over the point, as it was considerably larger than the middle bit. Plus, there was that big seed in the middle that was inedible. Sora watched hungrily as Riku brought the last point to his mouth. However, Riku sighed, paused and tossed it to Sora.

"You're injured. You need it more than I do." He grunted.

Sora tossed it back. "But you're the one who's gonna row the boat back."

Riku growled at Sora. _If you insist_. The point of the star quickly disappeared down his throat, and Sora flinched visibly. The remaining fruit was nothing more than a torn bit of mush, but Sora still snatched it and began to clear away everything that could be eaten. When that was done, he shoved the whole seed pod into his mouth to try and suck away the rest of the flavor. To his right, Riku was licking his fingers.

Finally, Riku had to admit that every trace of juice had been licked away, and the only reason his hands were sticky was from the saliva. A little grossed out, he wiped his hands on his pants. Sora admitted defeat a little while after, when he reluctantly spat the seed pod into his hand. He had seriously considered trying to eat it too, but thought better of it when he realized that it wouldn't go down easily, and it certainly wouldn't come out easily.

He didn't spare it a second glance, but fiddled with it in his fingers. It was a keepsake of some much-needed food, and he subconsciously did not want to forget it. He only looked at it again when Riku chuckled and pointed to it, several minutes later.

"Sora, look."

His fist opened to reveal a small, brown, heart-shaped seed pod.

Eyes widening, he began to examine it from every angle. "I thought seed pods were supposed to be round!" he exclaimed, almost as if he had been cheated of something. Riku just laughed.

"Didn't you hear the full story of the paopu fruit?" Sora shook his head – it had been Riku who had told him the story in the first place, and he hadn't given it enough thought to wonder if there was more to the story. "Well, the story goes that paopu fruits originally bloom with two seed pods, but as they mature the seed pods merge together to form one." His fingers gently took the seep from Sora's fingers and brought it closer to his face to have a better look "That's where they got the story about sharing the fruit causes your destinies to intertwine. But sometimes, nature mutates, and the pods don't merge properly, forming a love heart shaped seed." Riku shrugged "I never gave it much thought, but that's supposed to mean you've just shared a fruit with your, well… 'True love'." He gestured the quotation marks.

Sora just sat in a stunned silence. Slowly, his head swiveled to look at Riku, his face unreadable. Riku felt himself break into a cold sweat as Sora learned closer. For a split second their eyes met, and something flashed in Sora's azure eyes, and the other boy felt his breathing hitch.

"Riku, you are so gay."

Riku paused. Of all the responses he was expecting, that was certainly not one of them. And he had no idea how to react.

"I mean really. You could best Selphie with your cheesy stories about love and fruit an all the crap, and _that _is an achievement worthy of the Guinness Book of World Records." Sora rambled on, arms swinging dramatically. If he kept it up he would fall backwards off the tree.

"Sora…" Riku seethed, giving Sora his best if-looks-could-kill-you'd-have-a-negative-age glare. Sora just ignored him and continued, grinning happily.

"It's like you fell out of the gay tree, hit every gay branch on the way down, landed on a gay guy, did him, went to the local gay bar and got smashed on pre-mixed spirits!" His voice was getting louder and louder as he was laughing harder and harder.

"Sora!" Riku barked, giving Sora a light shove. It was only a light shove, but it knocked Sora's balance off, and the boy toppled from the back of the three, landed on the dirt with a heavy thud and lay very still. Before he knew what he was doing, Riku had clean scaled the tree and was kneeling next to Sora, shaking his shoulder and calling his name with a cracked voice. Worry bubbled in his stomach, pushing and anxious knot up his throat.

"Sora, are you okay? Can you hear me? Sora!" He practically begged the still boy.

Slowly, one of Sora's eyes slid open a crack and he glanced up at Riku, not really seeing him.

"… Your gayness can be seen from outer space." He smirked. Riku's face fell into a frown and he shoved the boy roughly, remaining in his kneeling position.

"Don't _do_ that again – you scared the shit out of me!" He glared down at the other boy, who just giggled.

"Aww, poor Riku. Well, you probably shouldn't shove me off the tree again, because my head is really starting to hurt." He grunted, eyes falling shut again. Riku was honestly torn between punching him in the arm, telling him to suck it up and fussing over him, making sure he was okay.

Unable to decide, he did something he was not expecting to do. He didn't mean to, really, and he had no previous intention to do it. Maybe he slipped, or maybe he did it accidentally-on-purpose, who knows, but he suddenly found his lips pressed against Sora's.

"Should I give you guys some time alone?" A coy voice called out from several feet away. Riku looked over at the bridge to see a smirking Kairi standing there, arms folded. "Or I could, y'know, just stand here and watch. My parents recently found and destroyed my entire porn collection." Kairi examined the nails on her right hand casually, as Sora and Riku's faces went an identical shade of crimson.

"It's not what it looks like!" Riku spluttered, climbing to his feet.

Kairi just laughed "I'm happy for you guys, really, I am. I was practically about to start taking bets as to when you'd finally hook up with each other."

Sora glared at Riku, fuming "A little help, my dearest boyfriend?" Riku aimed a light kick at his ribs and stepped away. However, when Sora let out a small cry of pain, Riku wrenched the boy onto his feet so fast; all Kairi saw was a silver blur.

"So where have you been all day?" Sora questioned, once he was steady on his feet.

Kairi shrugged "With Naminé." She commented as she casually strolled between Sora and Riku to sit on the paopu tree.

Riku, cheeks still a little pink and pride still a little hurt, commented slyly "Making out, I assume…" as Kairi passed.

She just laughed once she had perched herself on the tree "I suppose you could say that."

If Sora and Riku's jaws weren't attached to their heads, they would be lying in the sand. Kairi's eyes flirted between the two, eyes becoming more and more narrowed.

"Oh, come on. I just walked in on you two kissing, and you act all surprised when you find out I keep those things to myself." Kairi's eyes rolled. However, she paused, mid-roll, and turned her head to look at something. "Guys, wasn't there a paopu fruit here yesterday?"

Sora began to search through his pockets, as if desperately looking for something, while Riku's eyes trained onto his shoes. Again, Kairi found herself looking back and forth between the two, amusement growing.

"Oh my God." She grinned "You didn't. No way."

Sora shrugged "We were hungry and it was the only piece of food nearby." pretending it wasn't a big deal. "But still, I'm happy you got together with Naminé. We could tell you liked each other."

It was Kairi's turn to feel dumbfounded "… Was I that obvious?"

"He only recognized the look you were giving her because it's the same look he's given me for years." Riku piped up, confidence back in place. He smirked over at Sora, who merely blushed and shrugged at the ground. Riku felt his ego inflate.

"But still, the timing's pretty cool. Hey!" Sora's hands clasped together in excitement "We can all go out together!"

"What, like a double-date?" Kairi suggested, feeling her eyebrows disappear into her hairline. Sora thought for a second and nodded happily. Riku and Kairi just stared at him with identical stunned expressions, however, and he soon felt himself cringe.

"… What?"

Riku simply smirked and wrapped an arm around Sora's shoulders.

"What was that about _my_ gayness being visible from outer space?"

---

**Author's Notes:**** There is a lot more of this story. It's far from over, but I might just leave it here. **

**Your thoughts?**


	6. Six

"Where the shit are they!" Riku growled. He would have folded his arms if they weren't laden with drink cups and buckets of popcorn. Sora tucked the tickets into his wallet as he shrugged.

"Probably making out in the bushes somewhere." He suggested lazily as he glanced at the clock on the wall. Five minutes until curtain up, but the first fifteen minutes of every movie was just trailers and other boring things, so there was still plenty of time for the girls to make an appearance. Besides, Sora kind of liked the idea of two hot girls making out.

Even though it had been Sora to suggest the double date, it was actually Riku who had suggested the cinema. The words were barely out of his mouth when Kairi had whipped out her mobile phone and called Naminé. Before either of the boys could blink, Naminé was on loudspeaker and she and Kairi had giggly arranged a date, time, picked the movie, informed each other on what they were going to wear and Kairi had given Naminé a detailed recount of exactly what she had walked in on, barely five minutes before the call.

Much of what was said was spoken so quickly that Riku and Sora were unable to catch on.

So it came to be that, two days later, while reinforcing the wooden bridge on the island, Kairi had informed them that they would be watching Twilight together.

"Twilight?" Riku gaped at her. "Why the hell are we watching _that_?"

Kairi frowned as she handed Sora a plank of wood. "Because it's supposed to be a good movie. Naminé has read the books and says it's pretty cool, and she has good taste in books." She waved a hammer threateningly. Riku snatched the hammer from her and drove a nail into place, a little more forcefully than he should have, grumbling under his breath about vampires.

Sora's ears perked as he fitted the next board into place, several feet away. "It's about vampires?" He asked, earning a nod from Kairi "How bad could it be, then? Vampires are awesome. They eat people." He nodded knowingly, his head full of gruesome bloodsuckers and violent screams. After a second, he paused. Something didn't quite add up. "Wait, why are we watching a horror flick for a first date?"

Kairi laughed. "Because Twilight isn't a horror movie." Ignoring Riku's subtle "Yes, it is" she approached Sora, ready to relay the information on the story that Naminé had fed her, and do it proudly. "Twilight is about the forbidden love of a girl and a vampire."

Sora thought for a moment. Even though he was secretly dating his very best, very male friend, he still valued what was left of his masculinity, and the tragic tale of a vampire wanting to eat his girlfriend sounded a _little_ too gay for his tastes. "Well, so long as people get eaten and stuff it'd be okay." He reasoned, gently marking a spot to hammer a nail in with a lead pencil.

Kairi shook her head "No, it's very gentle. The vampire only eats animals, but as much as he wants to eat her, he can't let himself do it, because he loves her too much." She was putting such a good spin on the story that she seemed to convince herself.

Sora made a face "So there's no blood and guts?"

Kairi shook her head, and Riku piped up "Sora, remember what a Mary Sue is?"

Sora thought for a second. "Isn't a Mary Sue an original character in fanfiction that is too perfect in every way imaginable and some ways that aren't, and who causes every male character to forget his previous personality, values and beliefs and falls head-over-heels for her?"

Kairi nodded "And she's usually just a fanaticized version of the author who has a crush on one of the fictional characters of the original story?"

Riku nodded slowly as he rustled around in the bag of nails "Well, it seems that not all Mary Sues are females, and they aren't restricted to fanfiction."

"You don't mean –"

"How would you know, anyway?"

"Oh, God, the world is going to end!"

"Calm down, Sora. The Cullens don't eat people."

"_Mary Sues are going to take over the world, one fanfic at a time!_"

Sora's mind was dragged to the present by an annoyed voice.

"If they don't get a move on we'll get locked out. And would you mind giving me a hand, here? I'm about to drop some of the junk food." Riku scowled, roughly pushing a bucket of popcorn at Sora. Sora scrambled to ease Riku's burden – food was one of his favorite things, and it just wasn't a movie without a giant bucket of popcorn. Each. And some ice cream. Yeah.

At that second, Kairi and Naminé decided to make their appearance. However, they were looking neat and perfectly calm, as if they hadn't just spent the last ten minutes making out in the bushes somewhere. After a quick exchanging of words, Kairi and Naminé went off to buy food and tickets and Riku and Sora went to find decent seats.

Sora liked to sit in the front row, right in the middle, but Riku eyed some seats in the back corner. Eventually, as more people trickled in, they compromised and settled in the middle of the theatre. Eventually, the lights dimmed and the trailers started. However, there was no sign of the girls anywhere.

Riku glanced over his seat at the rows behind him. "You know what? I think we've been ditched." He smirked. How… convenient of them.

Sora shook his head. "Did you check the back corner?" He mumbled through a mouthful of popcorn. Riku did as suggested and his smirk doubled when he spotted a blonde head and an auburn head in the very back corner.

"Yep, we've been abandoned." He confirmed as he grabbed a handful of Sora's popcorn.

"Hey! You've got your own bucket!" Sora exclaimed as he swatted Riku's hand away.

"Aww, but yours tastes better." Riku teased as he stole Sora's drink and took a swig. He hated Coka Cola, it was much too sweet for him, but it was worth it, just to see Sora glare at him like that. Was it legal to be so adorable?

Sora retaliated in the only way he could. He roughly shoved his hand at Riku's side and began tickling mercilessly. Riku froze, doubled over and began to writhe violently, laughing uproariously, attempting to push Sora away in vain. Sora reached around him with his other hand and began to tickle Riku's other side, causing him to almost shriek with laugher. The sound echoed loudly and many people had begun to search for the source of the noise, but Sora didn't care. He rarely got to bully Riku like this, so there was no way he was going to stop.

Both buckets of popcorn had spilled their contents all over the chairs and floor, and the drinks were about to follow suit, but the only thing that stopped Sora was the sudden harsh light as someone shined a torch directly into his face.

"Right, you two. Out!" An angry voice exclaimed.

Riku, still slumped over and trying to regain his breath, didn't notice the angry usher until he'd straightened up, wiped the tears of mirth out of his eyes and exclaimed in a very loud voice "Fuck you, Sora!"

Within five minutes, they had both received two-month bans from the cinema and had been kicked out onto the street.

"I'm sorry about that, Riku." Sora muttered to his feet as the two of them walked to Riku's car, feeling furiously ashamed of himself for ruining his first date. He hoped Riku wasn't as disappointed as he was.

Riku shrugged "You actually did me a favor – I really didn't want to watch that movie."

Sora looked up at him; eyebrows raised teasingly to hide his relief "Yeah, how did you know so much about Twilight, anyway? You seemed to know all about it, you big fairy."

Riku's hands rammed into his pockets, ignoring the jab. "I read the books to my little sister." He said bluntly.

Sora's mind drifted to the frail little girl that sat in her wheelchair all day. The girl that looked so small and so fragile that a stiff breeze might tear her apart. The ten-year-old who had a hole in her heart, and who had surpassed her life expectancy two years ago.

"How is she doing, by the way?" Sora asked, avoiding Riku's gaze.

"She's one up on the list of heart transplants." He grimaced "The man in line before her died a couple of weeks ago."

Sora bit his lip, not knowing what to say. It was good that she was one step closer to a normal life, but it sucked that someone had died from the same problem she had. He never knew how to handle the issue; it caused Riku a lot of agony, and he didn't want to upset him.

Nervously, hesitantly, he reached across and wrapped an arm around Riku's middle, hoping to put into the gesture what he couldn't put into words. The other boy smiled down at him, allowing his arm to drape across Sora's shoulders, pulling him close. They walked in peace for a while, until Sora began to gently tickle Riku's side. Riku shouted with laughter, pushed Sora away roughly and ran to his car, attempting to lock Sora out of it. Sora, however, was too fast, and was buckled in before Riku could even open his door.

"Let's go watch a decent movie." He suggested once the keys were in the ignition.

"The Terminator?" Sora suggested, fiddling with the radio. Riku chuckled and nodded.

"Agreed."

"Oh geez, the movie hasn't even started yet and they've been kicked out." Kairi slapped her forehead as she watched Riku drag a cringing Sora from the theatre.

"What on Earth were they doing down there, anyway?" Naminé wondered, sitting up straight to get a better look. They heard Riku laughing, yes, but die to the circumstances it seemed very questionable to them. Kairi suppressed the urge to suggest that perhaps Sora had been performing oral sex on Riku. Not even those two were dumb enough to try something in the cinema, before the movie had even started.

"_I've never given much thought to how I would die._"

"Oh, it's starting." Kairi muttered as she sipped her water. Neither of the girls had bought very much food – just a bottle of water each and a packet of crispy MnMs to share. As she watched the brunette she knew as Bella pot a small cactus on screen, she felt a small hand slip into her own. Swallowing slightly, she glanced over at Naminé, who had her eyes trained innocently on the screen, the ghost of a smile dancing across her face.

"_Dying in place of someone I love seems like a pretty good way to go._"

Smiling also, Kairi laced her fingers through Naminé's and settled down to watch the movie.

"Wasn't Edward supposed to be _hot_?" Kairi frowned as the credits rolled on.

Somehow, as the movie drew on, they had gotten closer and closer to each other. The armrest of the seat was in its upright position, but Kairi didn't remember it going up. It came as a pleasant surprise to find their arms wrapped around each other when the lights came on. As tempted as Kairi was to just stay like that, they would have attracted some attention, so she'd reluctantly pulled away from Naminé.

"I know. His face looked like he's been hit by a bus or two." Naminé yawned, stretching luxuriously in her chair. Kairi hauled herself out of her seat with some difficulty and began to shake the sleep out of her legs.

"That Alice girl was pretty sexy, though." She smiled, offering Naminé a hand up.

"Do I have some competition, now?" Naminé feigned anger as she took Kairi's hand, but Kairi just giggled.

"You're better looking than all of the Cullen girls rolled into one, don't worry."

Naminé's cheeks went slightly pink as she stood up. "Really?"

Kairi gave Naminé's hand a gentle squeeze and nodded. "Really really. Now, I'm kind of hungry; do you want some food?"

Naminé shrugged casually as they filed from the cinema "Sure, I guess. We could go to that sandwich bar down the street, remember, where we ate lunch the other day. They have really nice egg and lettuce sandwiches."

Kairi poked her tongue out. Egg and lettuce. Ew. Poking Naminé's cheek playfully, she shook her head "Nah, that's a lunch spot and it's just past eight. I wanted to take you to this small Italian restaurant I discovered a month or two back – they serve the best tortellini I have ever tasted." She said casually, playfully. Naminé shrugged.

"Lead the way, Kai."

The 'small Italian restaurant' Kairi had promised was a lie – it was actually a pizza takeout shop with a few tables and chairs scattered in front of the shop on the street, and a small pasta menu tacked to the wall in a very subtle, dusty corner. Still, it was clean, pleasant and very quiet; they were seated almost immediately and had regular visits from the waiter.

Their dingy plastic table stood in a little fenced-off area on the wide sidewalk; from it they could see up and down the entire street, into the shops opposite and all of the passers-by. A cool evening breeze blew in the gentle rhythm of the island, the steady beat from the heart of the Island itself. It was a warm night, however, and neither of the girls felt particularly hot or cold.

After a short while of people-spotting and talking aimlessly, Naminé settled on the tortellini and Kairi went for the spaghetti bolognese. They also got a plate of garlic bread to share and a jug of water.

After several minutes of eating in silence, Kairi piped up "How's your pasta?"

Naminé swallowed a mouthful and smiled. "Best I've ever tasted." Before Kairi could respond, Naminé jokingly stuffed a big pile of pasta into her mouth, making a silly face that made Kairi giggle as she slurped up a long piece of spaghetti. It was warm, saucy and mouth-watering, but something was off. She could faintly taste something else, something that should not be on her plate. Some trace of chemicals? Or was it simply a bad bit of cheese? She shrugged it off, because the taste of the meatballs hid the other taste quite well. Even as thin as she was, Kairi always ate everything on her plate, even if it would make her sick. It was a rule.

Glancing over at Naminé as she raised the fork to her mouth, Kairi noticed that something was odd. Something was… missing? It took her a couple of minutes of thoughtful chewing to figure it out, and when she did she felt like an idiot for not noticing it before.

"Naminé… did you paint your nails today?" Kairi asked curiously, her own fork forgotten in her hand. In the place of the usual metallic glint was… nothing? Just an ordinary, if not extremely long, unpainted fingernail. She thought back to the time in the elevator several months ago she'd been told that if Naminé didn't paint her nails according to her daily moods, 'bad things' would happen, by the very paint-less girl who sat before her, in fact.

"I did have them painted this morning, now that you mention it. A rather bright shade of yellow that I discovered at the shop a week or so ago, if I recall correctly." She mused with a lopsided smile as she examined her nails. "Anticipation, I decided. I also noticed that you seem to like yellow, so it sort of doubled as thinking about you."

The casual way she watered her speech down with was lost of Kairi, and her cheeks went slightly pink. The thought of Naminé using a colour, just for her? Her stomach seemed to house a butterfly aviary for a split second at the thought. After a second, the churning didn't stop and her head began to swim. Feeling like she was going to be sick, her jaw clamped shut tightly and she rubbed her cheek, as if trying to rub off paint.

"But then I changed my mind." Naminé's hand sunk to her lap and she shot Kairi a very sober stare. Kairi stared, feeling like an idiot "You're not a colour, Kairi, you're not paint. You're a person. You're the only person I feel I can truly be myself around." Her eyes lowered to the salt shaker and she smiled, almost wistfully "If anything, you're nail polish remover – you dissolved the thin coat of paint I hide behind.

"The paints are really just colourful masks that I use to help me decide how to tackle the world, because I can't just go out and be myself – I have no idea who I really am. But," Naminé's icy blue eyes flickered back up to meet Kairi's gaze, burning with an intensity she had previously believed impossible "When I'm with you, Kairi, while I may be no closer to knowing who I am, I am that much more comfortable in my own skin." She paused, calmly sliding her gaze across each item of the table, trying to place what was going through her head neatly into human words.

"When I'm with you… I am… Naminé." She smiled a simple, childlike smile. "And that's enough for me."

For a long moment, time stood still. It was as if a big bubble had encased their table and stopped everything, the mad rush on the outside continuing on as if nothing was amiss. Neither of the girls could feel themselves breathing; the only thing they could feel was their gazes digging into each other's skulls.

But something was wrong. Kairi's heart fluttered irregularly as her stomach churned like an enraged ocean. A sweat broke out on her brow and her limbs felt like they were made of lead. Her chest burned and her head swam, and the world around her began to spin into a mad whirl of colours and sounds. Naminé's face swam towards her, concerned.

"Kairi?"

But the girl was paralyzed, clutching onto the table for fear of falling from the earth and into the sky. Madly, she began to shake her head to try and rid herself of this fog that clouded her eyes. Quite suddenly her stomach leapt at her mouth, pushing her dinner up and all over the table. Her body bent rigidly as she retched loudly all over herself and what was left of her dinner. When there was nothing left in her stomach, she clambered to her feet, face hot enough to fry an egg. Panting, swaying, she gripped the back of her chair for support.

"Kairi!"

Kairi screamed – and turned tail and ran for her life, forgetting her bag, her dinner and her date. She ran and ran as if being chased by some horrific monster, almost blindly, until she couldn't run anymore and collapsed into a dead faint.

**Author's Message in a Bottle:**** So, all of you lovely people have convinced me to continue. I sat down and read through all of my chapters, drafts and notes and got myself back into the story, just in time for Valentine's Day. ^_^ **

**There's one thing I noticed about Naminé in the games – she always has a very good idea of what's going on, but she never has any control in what happens to her. All she can ever do is hide away in her little hidey hole, draw her pictures and hope for some strong adolescent boy to come save her. And she seems to be pretty well collected on the surface but she's actually an uncertain shamble, and she always has to hide it and put on a brave face to help lead the good guys to victory.**

**I always felt sorry for the girl. :/**

**And Kairi? Eh. Let's not worry about her; her character is very under developed due to her lack of screen time. This chapter's Kairi was more of the Kairi from the actual event than the Kairi from the game. Leave it at that.**

-x-

Well, that update never came. Chapter seven 'died in the arse', as it were, and it's been almost three years since I've touched this story. Yeah, I'm sorry that it died on a cliffhanger. XD It surprises me to see people actually still read this story.

I never felt that Warpaint was my best story, but I suppose it was like the training wheels I needed to get off my butt and actually finish a longer fanfiction. I was only sixteen when I began this fanfiction, but since then I've grown a little, matured even less, but write with a slightly higher level of eloquence. I've been toying with the idea of rewriting this for a while now. Currently I'm a little too busy, but in the near future, who knows? Stranger things have happened.


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